Symfony - creating new entity instead of updating existing - php

Question

I have the following structure:
Category property that contains link to property and its value:
<?php
class CategoryProperty
{
// ...
/**
* #var Property
*
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="App\Entity\Property")
* #ORM\JoinColumn(onDelete="cascade", nullable=false)
*/
private $property;
/**
* Набор значений свойства доступных в product builder, null если любое значение.
*
* #var PropertyValueEntry
* #Assert\Valid
*
* #ORM\OneToOne(targetEntity="App\Entity\Properties\PropertyValues\PropertyValueEntry",
* cascade={"persist", "remove"})
*/
private $propertyValue;
// ...
}
Abstract property value type with a discriminator map:
<?php
/**
* #ORM\Entity
* #ORM\InheritanceType("JOINED")
* #ORM\DiscriminatorColumn(name="type", type="integer")
* #ORM\DiscriminatorMap({
* "1": "StringValue",
* "2": "IntegerValue",
* "3": "BooleanValue",
* "4": "TextValue",
* "6": "EnumValue",
* "7": "SetValue",
* "9": "LengthValue",
* "10": "AreaValue",
* "11": "VolumeValue",
* "12": "MassValue",
* })
* #ORM\Table(name="properties_values__value_entry")
*/
abstract class PropertyValueEntry
{
/**
* #var Property
*
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="App\Entity\Property")
*/
private $property;
public function __construct(Property $property)
{
$this->property = $property;
}
public function getProperty(): Property
{
return $this->property;
}
/**
* #return mixed
*/
abstract public function getValue();
/**
* #param mixed $value
*/
abstract public function setValue($value): void;
}
And a sample concrete value type:
<?php
/**
* #ORM\Entity
* #ORM\Table(name="properties_values__integer_value")
*/
class IntegerValue extends PropertyValueEntry
{
/**
* #var int
* #Assert\NotNull
*
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
*/
private $value = 0;
public function getValue(): int
{
return $this->value;
}
/**
* #param int|null $value
*/
public function setValue($value): void
{
if (!\is_int($value)) {
throw new InvalidArgumentException('BooleanValue accepts integer values only');
}
$this->value = $value;
}
}
For some reason, when form is submitted, instead of updating a value for IntegerValue, a new entity gets created, and new row in properties_values__value_entry / properties_values__integer_value. I tried tracking through the $this->em->persist($entity), where $entity is CategoryProperty, and it seems that IntegerValue gets marked as dirty and created anew. How can I track the cause of this happening? My form processing is pretty standard:
<?php
public function editAction(): Response
{
$id = $this->request->query->get('id');
$easyadmin = $this->request->attributes->get('easyadmin');
$entity = $easyadmin['item'];
$isReload = 'reload' === $this->request->request->get('action');
$editForm = $this->createForm(CategoryPropertyType::class, $entity, [
'category' => $this->getCatalog(),
'is_reload' => $isReload,
]);
$deleteForm = $this->createDeleteForm($this->entity['name'], $id);
$editForm->handleRequest($this->request);
if ($editForm->isSubmitted() && $editForm->isValid()) {
if (!$isReload) {
$this->em->persist($entity);
$this->em->flush();
return $this->redirectToReferrer();
}
}
return $this->render($this->entity['templates']['edit'], [
'form' => $editForm->createView(),
'entity' => $entity,
'delete_form' => $deleteForm->createView(),
]);
}
UPDATE #1
What I already tried:
Retrieve category property by ID from entity manager through
$entity = $this->em->find(CategoryProperty::class, $id);
Altogether it seems this may be related to the fact that I have a dynamic form being created based on the selection. When I add a category property, I display a dropdown with a list of property types (integer, string, area, volume etc), and after selection a new form for that property is displayed. Though this works fine and adds new property without a problem, it seems that the code for EDITING same property is missing something, and instead of update it creates it anew.

Answer 1

Possibility #1: Load entity from entity manager directly
You don't appear to be retrieving an existing entity to modify at all.
$entity = $easyadmin['item'];
Shouldn't this be using Doctrine to retrieve an existing entity? For example:
if (!($entity = $this->getRepository(CategoryProperty::class)->findOneById($id))) {
throw $this->createNotFoundException("Category property not found.");
}
Semi-related: You may also want to check that a integer ID was specified at all, as $id = $this->request->query->get('id'); is very assumptive:
if (intval($id = $this->request->query->get('id')) < 1) {
throw $this->createNotFoundException("Category property not specified.");
}
Possibility 2: Missing identifier reference with one-to-one relationship
I think you may be getting duplication because CategoryProperty doesn't persist any reference to a PropertyValueEntry.
/**
* Набор значений свойства доступных в product builder, null если любое значение.
*
* #var PropertyValueEntry
* #Assert\Valid
*
* #ORM\OneToOne(targetEntity="App\Entity\Properties\PropertyValues\PropertyValueEntry", cascade={"persist", "remove"})
*/
private $propertyValue;
However PropertyValueEntry doesn't have an inverse relationship back to CategoryProperty.
A unidirectional one-to-one is fine, but it must have a #ORM\JoinColumn directive to ensure the identifier of the foreign PropertyValueEntry is persisted. Otherwise an edit form won't have any information to know which existing PropertyValueEntry (or derivative) it needs to edit. This is why your "properties_values__value_entry" form field is being reset with a new instance of PropertyValueEntry (or derivative) created when submitting the form.
You've not shown the source for entity class Property so I can't inspect for any further issues in your entity relationships.

Answer 2

Thanks to everyone participating, I have been reading through Symfony documentation and came across the 'by_reference' form attribute. Having considered that my form structure overall looks like this:
Category => CategoryPropertyType => PropertyValueType => [Set, Enum, Integer, Boolean, String, Volume]
for the form, I decided to set it to true in PropertyValueType configureOptions method. As it is explained in the documentation, with it being set to false, the entity is getting cloned (which in my case is true), thus creating a new object at the end.
Note that I'm still learning Symfony and will be refining the answer when I get a better understanding of what's going on behind the scenes.