Symfony2 Doctrine ManyToMany doesn't persist - symfony

Question

Hey guys I'm looking for help again.
My problem is that two related ORM entities not getting stored.
I run the following Unit test and it fails:
public function testCategoryRelation()
{
$doctrine = $this->client->getContainer()->get('doctrine');
$itemRepo = $doctrine->getRepository("AppBundle:Item");
$item = $itemRepo->find(230045);
$this->assertTrue($item instanceof \Acme\TestBundle\Entity\Item);
$categories = $item->getCategories();
$this->assertGreaterThan(0, $categories->count());
foreach ($categories as $category) {
$this->assertTrue($category instanceof \Acme\TestBundle\Entity\Category);
}
$count = $categories->count();
$categoryRepo = $doctrine->getRepository("AppBundle:Category");
$categories = $categoryRepo->findBy(array(), null, 2);
$this->assertEquals( 2, count($categories) );
foreach ($categories as $category) {
$this->assertTrue($category instanceof \Acme\TestBundle\Entity\Category);
$category->addItem($item);
$item->addCategory($category);
}
$this->assertGreaterThan($count, $item->getCategories()->count());
$em = $doctrine->getManager();
foreach ($categories as $category) {
$em->persist($category);
}
$em->persist($item);
$em->flush();
$em->clear($item);
$item = $itemRepo->find(230045);
$categories = $item->getRelatedItems();
$this->assertGreaterThan($count, $categories->count()); /* Here it fails */
}
I have no clue why the last test fails. Could you please help me find my mistake?
I run Symfony 2.1.4 together with Doctrine 2.3
I have two ORM Objects.
1. Item
namespace Acme\TestBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* #ORM\Table(name="item")
*/
class Item
{
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Category", mappedBy="items")
*/
private $categories;
public function __construct()
{
$this->categories = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
/**
* #param \Acme\TestBundle\Entity\Category $category
*/
public function addCategory(\Acme\TestBundle\Entity\Category $category)
{
$this->categories[] = $category;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
*/
public function getCategories()
{
return $this->categories;
}
}
2. Category
namespace Acme\TestBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* #ORM\Table(name="category")
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="Acme\TestBundle\Repository\CategoryRepository")
*/
class Category
{
/**
* #var \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection
*
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Item", inversedBy="categories")
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="category_item",
* joinColumns={
* #ORM\JoinColumn(name="cat_id", referencedColumnName="id")
* },
* inverseJoinColumns={
* #ORM\JoinColumn(name="item_id", referencedColumnName="id")
* }
* )
*/
private $items;
/**
* #param \Acme\TestBundle\Entity\Item $item
* #return Category
*/
public function addItem(\Acme\TestBundle\Entity\Item $item)
{
$this->items[] = $item;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
*/
public function getItems()
{
return $this->items;
}
}
Thank you in advance for your help!

Answer 1

Hm, $categories = $item->getRelatedItems();. Maybe it is better to write $categories = $item->getCategories();?
The other suggestion is to add __construct method to Category entity class and initialize $items with new ArrayCollection