Symfony ManyToMany Bidirectionnal Relationship Only persist on one direction - symfony

Question

After a long time searching on the web, i decide myself to write my first post.
I hope I do it the right way.
Here is my problem.
I use symfony 2.1 on my project.
And I have to deal with a bi-directionnal Many-to-many relationship Between 2 objects.
I've created the 2 entities, done the mapping, done the controllers, the templates and the formBuilder.
I manage to persist both entities.
For one entity, i could persist the entity and the relation with the other.
But For the other entity, i could only persist the entity.
The relation with the other entity do not persist.
Here are extracts of the 2 entities :
class EntrainementCategorie{
{...}
/** #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="EntrainementType", mappedBy="categories", cascade="persist") */
protected $types;
}
Here is the second entity :
class EntrainementType{
{...}
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="EntrainementCategorie",inversedBy="types", cascade="persist")
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="mottet_entrainement_types_categories",
* joinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="idType", referencedColumnName="id")},
* inverseJoinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="idCategorie", referencedColumnName="id")})
*/
protected $categories;
}
So you can see, there is a bidirectionnal Many-to-Many relationship between category and type.
Here are the controllers :
class EntrainementCategorieController extends GenericController{
{...}
public function creerAction(Request $request){
return $this->creerActionGeneric($request,new Categorie(),new CategorieType());
}
}
The second one :
class EntrainementTypeController extends GenericController{
{...}
public function creerAction(Request $request){
return $this->creerActionGeneric($request,new Type(),new TypeType());
}
}
And here is the GenericController :
class GenericController extends Controller{
{...}
protected function creerActionGeneric(Request $request,$object,$objectType){
$form = $this->createForm($objectType,$object);
$isThereProblem = false;
if ($request->isMethod('POST')) {
$isThereProblem = true;
$form->bind($request);
if ($form->isValid()) {
$this->getEntityManager()->persist($object);
$this->getEntityManager()->flush();
$this->get('session')->getFlashBag()->add('information', $this->FORM_SUCCESS_MESSAGE);
$isThereProblem = false;
}
}
if ($isThereProblem){
$this->get('session')->getFlashBag()->add('error', $this->FORM_ERROR_MESSAGE);
}
return $this->render($this->BUNDLE.':'.$this->ENTITY.':'.$this->CREATE_TEMPLATE, array('form' => $form->createView()));
}
}
Here are the formBuilder :
class EntrainementCategorieType extends AbstractType{
{...}
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options){
$builder->add('label','text')
->add('types','entity',array(
'class' => 'KarateEntrainementBundle:EntrainementType',
'property' => 'label',
'multiple' => true,
'expanded' => true));
}
}
And the second one :
class EntrainementTypeType extends AbstractType{
{...}
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options){
$builder->add('label','text')
->add('categories','entity',array(
'class' => 'KarateEntrainementBundle:EntrainementCategorie',
'property' => 'label',
'multiple' => true,
'expanded' => true));
}
}
So when i fill the EntrainementType form, both the type and its relations with category are persisted.
But when i fille the EntrainementCategory form, only the category is persisted, not its relations with type.
Does anyone knows what am i doing the wrong way ?
Hope i've been clear enought.
Thank you for you help !

Answer 1

I finally manage to do it.
I can't use the creerActionGeneric on that one.
I have to set explicitly the association between category and each type :
$form->bind($request);
if ($form->isValid()) {
$this->getEntityManager()->persist($categorie);
foreach($categorie->getTypes() as $type){
$type->addCategorie($categorie);
$this->getEntityManager()->persist($type);
}
$this->getEntityManager()->flush();
}
And that is working just fine.
But I don't know why on the other direction when i persist from the Type, I do not have to do like that ??? oO

Answer 2

There is a better way to go about doing via doctrine configuration of relationship. Doctrine will allow you to specify the join table and colums which reference the relationships.
I actually stumbled upon this answer before deciding to read more into it as this didn't seem appropriate... This is the right way to go about making a relationship like this (and in yml because that's what I prefer), and with my entities obviously (feeds can have/belong-to many lists and lists can have/belong-to many feeds)
Configuration for Feed:
manyToMany:
providerLists:
targetEntity: ProviderList
joinTable:
name: providerlist_feed
joinColumns:
feed_id:
referencedColumnName: id
inverseJoinColumns:
providerlist_id:
referencedColumnName: id
Configuration for list
manyToMany:
feeds:
targetEntity: Feed
joinTable:
name: providerlist_feed
joinColumns:
providerlist_id:
referencedColumnName: id
inverseJoinColumns:
feed_id:
referencedColumnName: id
so with that both entities now own each other, and both will persist the same way :)