foreign key null in collection form symfony 3 - php

Question

i have two entities Survey.php and Choice.php I create a form to add new survey and multi choices, I used a many-to-one relation between the two entities, the problem is when I submit for a new survey, the foreign key of choice entity return null
here's my code
Survey.PHP
/**
* Survey
*
* #ORM\Table(name="survey")
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\SurveyRepository")
*/
class Survey
{
/....
/**
* #var ArrayCollection
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\Choice", mappedBy="survey_id",cascade="persist")
* #ORM\JoinColumn(nullable=false, referencedColumnName="id")
*/
private $choice;
public function __construct()
{
$this->choice = new ArrayCollection();
}
/**
* Add choice
*
* #param \AppBundle\Entity\Choice $choice
*
* #return Survey
*/
public function addChoice(\AppBundle\Entity\Choice $choice)
{
$this->choice[] = $choice;
$choice->setSurvey($this);
return $this;
}
/**
* Remove choice
*
* #param \AppBundle\Entity\Choice $choice
*/
public function removeChoice(\AppBundle\Entity\Choice $choice)
{
$this->choice->removeElement($choice);
}
/**
* Get choice
*
* #return \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
*/
public function getChoice()
{
return $this->choice;
}
}
Choice.php
/**
* Choice
* #ORM\Table(name="choice")
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\ChoiceRepository")
*/
class Choice
{
/**
* #var int
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Survey",inversedBy="choice")
*/
private $survey;
/**
* Set survey
*
* #param \AppBundle\Entity\Survey $survey
*
* #return Choice
*/
public function setSurveyId(\AppBundle\Entity\Survey $survey)
{
$this->survey = $survey;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get surveyId
*
* #return \AppBundle\Entity\Survey
*/
public function getSurveyId()
{
return $this->survey_id;
}
}
SurveyController.php
<?php
namespace AppBundle\Controller;
use AppBundle\Entity\Survey;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
/**
* Survey controller.
*
*/
class SurveyController extends Controller
{
/**
* Creates a new survey entity.
* #param Request $request
* #return \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\RedirectResponse|\Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response
*/
public function newAction(Request $request)
{
$survey = new Survey();
//
$form = $this->createForm('AppBundle\Form\SurveyType', $survey);
$form->handleRequest($request);
$survey->setCreateDate(new \DateTime('NOW'));
if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid()) {
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
$em->persist($survey);
$em->flush();
return $this->redirectToRoute('survey_show', ['id' => $survey->getId()]);
}
return $this->render('survey/new.html.twig', [
'survey' => $survey,
'form' => $form->createView(),
]);
}
any suggestion, btw I think the problem is in the getters and setters )

Answer 1

Link the choice to the survey:
// Survey
public function addChoice(\AppBundle\Entity\Choice $choice)
{
$this->choice[] = $choice;
$choice->setSurvey($this);
return $this;
}
And change the survey_id stuff to survey. Dealing with objects not ids. And of course Survey::choice should be Survey::choices. The name changes might seem minor but will make your easier to maintain.

Answer 2

I fixed the problem by adding a for each loop inside the SurveyController.php
and it works just fine
SurveyController.php
if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid())
{
foreach ($survey->getChoices() as $choice){
$choice->setSurvey($survey);
}
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
$em->persist($survey);
$em->flush();
not "THE best solution" but it gets the job done

Answer 3

It worked with me, but I had to remove the explicit foreign key mapping with the "inversedBy" setting from the class definition. I use a composite foreign key (using two columns), which maybe makes things harder though...