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Doctrine does not update a simple array type field

Asked 2012-11-05T07:20:24.333
13

Short Story (Edit)

It is possible to store an array instead of a mapped association. In Symfony2, this is fairly easy using the collection Field Type. For example, using this technique, you could store an array of text fields that populate an array events field. However, to update an array, there is a trick, and this trick is beautifully explained by @Vadim Ashikhman in the accepted answer.

Long Story

Sometimes it is useful and more efficient to store an array instead of a mapped association. However, once created, it remains complicated to update this Array if the size of that array does not change?

Many people have a similar issue but nobody found a proper solution to this problem.

Store an array

A team can organise many events. These events are simply stored within an array using Doctrine instead of using a OneToMany association. Therefore, the entity Event is not mapped with Doctrine.

Entity Event (not mapped with Doctrine)

<?php

namespace Acme\TestBundle\Entity;

...

class Event
{

    /**
     * @Assert\NotBlank
     */
    private $name;

    public function setName($name)
    {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return $this->name;
    }


}

Entity Team

<?php

namespace Acme\TestBundle\Entity;

...

/**
 * @ORM\Entity()
 * @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks
 * @ORM\Table(name="teams")  
 */
class Team 
{

/**
     * @ORM\Column(type="array")
     * @var array
     */
    protected $events;


    public function addEvent($event)
    {
        if (!in_array($event, $this->events, true)) {
            $this->events[] = $event;
php symfony doctrine doctrine-orm symfony-forms
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1 Answer

2

You can try this inside the controller:

public function updateTeamAction($team_id, Request $request)
{

    $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

    $repository= $em->getRepository('AcmeTestBundle:Team');

    $team_to_update = $repository->find($team_id);

    $form = $this->createForm(new teamType(), $team_to_update);

    if ($request->getMethod() == 'POST')
    {
        $form->bind($request);

        if ($form->isValid()){
            $events = $team_to_update->getEvents();
            foreach($events as $key => $value){
                $team_to_update->removeEvent($key);
            }
            $em->flush();
            $team_to_update->setEvents($events);
            $em->persist($team_to_update);
            $em->flush();

            return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('homepage'))  ;
        }
    }

    return array(
    'form' => $form->createView(),
    'team_id' => $team_id,
    );

}

There is probably a beter way to do this and i know this isnt a nice way to do it but till you (or someone else) finds that solution you can use this as a temporary fix.

answered 2012-11-05T12:28:51.890

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