Array to string conversion during POST only - symfony

Question

There are questions with the same title but they aren't related to POSTing.
If I submit my form using Symfony I can submit with no problem. Problem is when I submit my form using Angular using via POST method I created. It gives me the exception "Notice: Array to string conversion".
I know it has to do with my ManyToMany Relation (owners). If I don't add any owners it works fine. Problem is when I add owners.
Here is my Stack Trace:
Stack Trace:
1. in vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Bridge/Doctrine/Form/ChoiceList/ORMQueryBuilderLoader.php at line 106
2. at ErrorHandler ->handleError ('8', 'Array to string conversion', '/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/uploader/vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Bridge/Doctrine/Form/ChoiceList/ORMQueryBuilderLoader.php', '106', array('v' => array('id' => '2', 'firstName' => 'Albert', 'lastName' => 'Jankowski', 'username' => 'ajankowski', 'password' => '$2y$13$7lXTaq3w45j3P0HEln71T.ItLxxf8ZX28UkNFpYFPULyR2a7pLW1C', 'email' => 'ajankowski#myemail.com', 'enabled' => true, 'salt' => null, 'usernameCanonical' => 'ajankowski', 'availableRoles' => array('ROLE_USER', 'ROLE_ADMIN'), 'emailCanonical' => 'ajankowski#myemail.com', 'plainPassword' => null, 'lastLogin' => null, 'confirmationToken' => null, 'roles' => array('ROLE_USER'), 'accountNonExpired' => true, 'accountNonLocked' => true, 'credentialsNonExpired' => true, 'credentialsExpired' => false, 'expired' => false, 'locked' => false, 'superAdmin' => false, 'user' => false, 'passwordRequestedAt' => null, 'groups' => array(), 'groupNames' => array())))
in vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Bridge/Doctrine/Form/ChoiceList/ORMQueryBuilderLoader.php at line 106
3. at ORMQueryBuilderLoader ->Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Form\ChoiceList\{closure} (array('id' => '2', 'firstName' => 'Albert', 'lastName' => 'Jankowski', 'username' => 'ajankowski', 'password' => '$2y$13$7lXTaq3w45j3P0HEln71T.ItLxxf8ZX28UkNFpYFPULyR2a7pLW1C', 'email' => 'ajankowski#myemail.com', 'enabled' => true, 'salt' => null, 'usernameCanonical' => 'ajankowski', 'availableRoles' => array('ROLE_USER', 'ROLE_ADMIN'), 'emailCanonical' => 'ajankowski#myemail.com', 'plainPassword' => null, 'lastLogin' => null, 'confirmationToken' => null, 'roles' => array('ROLE_USER'), 'accountNonExpired' => true, 'accountNonLocked' => true, 'credentialsNonExpired' => true, 'credentialsExpired' => false, 'expired' => false, 'locked' => false, 'superAdmin' => false, 'user' => false, 'passwordRequestedAt' => null, 'groups' => array(), 'groupNames' => array()))
4. at array_filter (array(array('id' => '2', 'firstName' => 'Albert', 'lastName' => 'Jankowski', 'username' => 'ajankowski', 'password' => '$2y$13$7lXTaq3w45j3P0HEln71T.ItLxxf8ZX28UkNFpYFPULyR2a7pLW1C', 'email' => 'ajankowski#myemail.com', 'enabled' => true, 'salt' => null, 'usernameCanonical' => 'ajankowski', 'availableRoles' => array('ROLE_USER', 'ROLE_ADMIN'), 'emailCanonical' => 'ajankowski#myemail.com', 'plainPassword' => null, 'lastLogin' => null, 'confirmationToken' => null, 'roles' => array('ROLE_USER'), 'accountNonExpired' => true, 'accountNonLocked' => true, 'credentialsNonExpired' => true, 'credentialsExpired' => false, 'expired' => false, 'locked' => false, 'superAdmin' => false, 'user' => false, 'passwordRequestedAt' => null, 'groups' => array(), 'groupNames' => array())), object(Closure))
in vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Bridge/Doctrine/Form/ChoiceList/ORMQueryBuilderLoader.php at line 107
My Entity:
/**
* Company
*
* #ORM\Table()
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\CompanyRepository")
*/
class Company
{
......
......
/**
* #var User
*
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\User")
*/
private $owners;
......
......
}
My Controller:
/**
* #Route("", name="api_company_create")
* #Method("POST")
*
* #param \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request $request
*
* #return Response $response
*/
public function createAction(Request $request)
{
// Process the form.
$company = new Company();
$form = $this->createForm(new CompanyType(), $company);
$this->processForm($request, $form, TRUE);
if (!$form->isValid()) {
$this->throwApiProblemValidationException($form);
}
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
$em->persist($company);
$em->flush();
$response = $this->createApiResponse($company, 201);
$companyUrl = $this->generateUrl(
'api_company_show',
['id' => $company->getId()] );
$response->headers->set('Location', $companyUrl);
return $response;
}
/**
* Process the form.
*
* #param \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request $request
* #param \Symfony\Component\Form\FormInterface $form
* #param boolean $removeExtraFields
* #param Company $currentCompany
*/
private function processForm(Request $request, FormInterface $form, $removeExtraFields = FALSE, $currentCompany = NULL)
{
$data = json_decode($request->getContent(), true);
$clearMissing = $request->getMethod() != 'PATCH';
$form->submit($data, $clearMissing);
}
/**
* Company
*
* #ORM\Table()
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\CompanyRepository")
*/
class Company
{
......
......
/**
* #var User
*
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\User")
*/
private $owners;
......
......
}
I tried adding __String() to my Company Entity but that didn't help.
/**
* Transform to string
*
* #return string
*/
public function __toString()
{
return (string) $this->getOwners();
}

Answer 1

I was able to figure this out. It was because Symfony(Doctrine) does not want an entire object back. I created a function in my controller to fix this.
/**
* You may receive an entire object for a relation from your api but when
* saving Doctrine only wants the ids.
*
* For Example your API returns:
* $data['owners'][0] = array('id' => 1, 'name' => 'Admin');
* $data['owners'][1] = array('id' => 2, 'name' => 'User');
*
* But it expects:
*
* $data['owners'][0] = 1;
* $data['owners'][1] = 2;
*
*
* #param array $data
* #param string $name
*/
private function convertRelationToDoctrineSafeArray(&$data, $name)
{
if (isset($data[$name]) && $data[$name]) {
foreach ($data[$name] as $key => $field) {
$fields[$key] = $field['id'];
}
unset($data[$name]);
$data[$name] = $fields;
}
}