Error while putting element into DB with Doctrine2 Symfony - php

Question

I'm trying to put into a table called question tag an element so:
//the question with Id 1 exist already
$question = new Question();
$question->setId(1);
//the tag with name PYTHON exist already
$tag = new Tag();
$tag->setName("PYTHON");
$questionTag = new QuestionTag();
$questionTag->setQuestion($question);
$questionTag->setTag($tag);
//now I call a service to put the item into DB
$questionTagPF = $this->get('facade.QuestionTagFacade');
$res = $questionTagPF->create($questionTag);
This is the method to save the entity:
public function create( $entity ) {
$this->entityManager->getConnection()->beginTransaction();
try {
$this->entityManager->persist($entity);
$this->entityManager->flush();
$this->entityManager->getConnection()->commit();
return true;
} catch ( Exception $e ) {
$this->entityManager->getConnection()->rollBack();
return false;
}
}
And these are the entity classes:
relation (between question and tag):
<?php
namespace AppBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* QuestionTag
*
* #ORM\Table(name="question_tag", indexes={#ORM\Index(name="question", columns={"question"}), #ORM\Index(name="index_question_tag", columns={"tag"})})
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class QuestionTag
{
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var \AppBundle\Entity\Question
*
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\Question", cascade={ "persist" })
* #ORM\JoinColumns({
* #ORM\JoinColumn(name="question", referencedColumnName="id")
* })
*/
private $question;
/**
* #var \AppBundle\Entity\Tag
*
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\Tag", cascade={ "persist" })
* #ORM\JoinColumns({
* #ORM\JoinColumn(name="tag", referencedColumnName="name")
* })
*/
private $tag;
/**
* Get id
*
* #return integer
*/
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
/**
* Set question
*
* #param \AppBundle\Entity\Question $question
*
* #return QuestionTag
*/
public function setQuestion(\AppBundle\Entity\Question $question = null)
{
$this->question = $question;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get question
*
* #return \AppBundle\Entity\Question
*/
public function getQuestion()
{
return $this->question;
}
/**
* Set tag
*
* #param \AppBundle\Entity\Tag $tag
*
* #return QuestionTag
*/
public function setTag(\AppBundle\Entity\Tag $tag = null)
{
$this->tag = $tag;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get tag
*
* #return \AppBundle\Entity\Tag
*/
public function getTag()
{
return $this->tag;
}
}
question entity:
<?php
namespace AppBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* Question
*
* #ORM\Table(name="question", indexes={#ORM\Index(name="index_question_title", columns={"title"}), #ORM\Index(name="index_question_creation", columns={"creation_date"}), #ORM\Index(name="index_question_completed", columns={"completed"}), #ORM\Index(name="index_question_subject", columns={"subject"}), #ORM\Index(name="index_question_user", columns={"user_platform"})})
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class Question
{
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="title", type="string", length=50, nullable=false)
*/
private $title;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="text", type="string", length=1000, nullable=true)
*/
private $text;
/**
* #var \DateTime
*
* #ORM\Column(name="creation_date", type="date", nullable=false)
*/
private $creationDate;
/**
* #var boolean
*
* #ORM\Column(name="completed", type="boolean", nullable=true)
*/
private $completed = '0';
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\Column(name="level", type="integer", nullable=true)
*/
private $level = '1';
/**
* #var \AppBundle\Entity\Subject
*
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\Subject", cascade={ "persist" })
* #ORM\JoinColumns({
* #ORM\JoinColumn(name="subject", referencedColumnName="name")
* })
*/
private $subject;
/**
* #var \AppBundle\Entity\UserPlatform
*
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\UserPlatform", cascade={ "persist" })
* #ORM\JoinColumns({
* #ORM\JoinColumn(name="user_platform", referencedColumnName="username")
* })
*/
private $userPlatform;
/**
* Set id
*
* #param string $id
*
* #return Question
*/
public function setId($id)
{
$this->id = $id;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get id
*
* #return integer
*/
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
/**
* Set title
*
* #param string $title
*
* #return Question
*/
public function setTitle($title)
{
$this->title = $title;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get title
*
* #return string
*/
public function getTitle()
{
return $this->title;
}
/**
* Set text
*
* #param string $text
*
* #return Question
*/
public function setText($text)
{
$this->text = $text;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get text
*
* #return string
*/
public function getText()
{
return $this->text;
}
/**
* Set creationDate
*
* #param \DateTime $creationDate
*
* #return Question
*/
public function setCreationDate($creationDate)
{
$this->creationDate = $creationDate;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get creationDate
*
* #return \DateTime
*/
public function getCreationDate()
{
return $this->creationDate;
}
/**
* Set completed
*
* #param boolean $completed
*
* #return Question
*/
public function setCompleted($completed)
{
$this->completed = $completed;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get completed
*
* #return boolean
*/
public function getCompleted()
{
return $this->completed;
}
/**
* Set level
*
* #param integer $level
*
* #return Question
*/
public function setLevel($level)
{
$this->level = $level;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get level
*
* #return integer
*/
public function getLevel()
{
return $this->level;
}
/**
* Set subject
*
* #param \AppBundle\Entity\Subject $subject
*
* #return Question
*/
public function setSubject(\AppBundle\Entity\Subject $subject = null)
{
$this->subject = $subject;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get subject
*
* #return \AppBundle\Entity\Subject
*/
public function getSubject()
{
return $this->subject;
}
/**
* Set userPlatform
*
* #param \AppBundle\Entity\UserPlatform $userPlatform
*
* #return Question
*/
public function setUserPlatform(\AppBundle\Entity\UserPlatform $userPlatform = null)
{
$this->userPlatform = $userPlatform;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get userPlatform
*
* #return \AppBundle\Entity\UserPlatform
*/
public function getUserPlatform()
{
return $this->userPlatform;
}
}
tag entity:
<?php
namespace AppBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* Tag
*
* #ORM\Table(name="tag")
* #ORM\Entity
*/
class Tag
{
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="name", type="string", length=20)
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="NONE")
*/
private $name = '';
/**
* Set name
*
* #param string $name
*
* #return tag
*/
public function setName($name)
{
$this->name = $name;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get name
*
* #return string
*/
public function getName()
{
return $this->name;
}
}
when I try to put a value into table question_tag I have this error:
An exception occurred while executing 'INSERT INTO tag (name) VALUES (?)' with params ["PYTHON"]:
SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 1062 Duplicate entry 'PYTHON' for key 'PRIMARY'
Why?
It should not avoid entering a value if it already exists in the database? if this should be made explicit, how should I do?
thank you

Answer 1

In Symfony2 you have this things called Validators their job is to validate an object based on constraints so in your case you could use the following constraint in your tag entity
http://symfony.com/doc/current/reference/constraints/UniqueEntity.html
And then call to the validator service in your controller. You could avoid this step if you use FormTypes for your classes they automatically validate the object with the validator service.
http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/forms.html
Actually you could use the forms to validate data structure.. but that is offtopic
.....
The other way you could do this is by selecting the tag you want to insert and check if there is a result if not well then you can insert the tag if it exists you just recover it from the database and use the existing one

Answer 2

the problem was with the parameters that I give to the method to put data into db, so this code:
//the question with Id 1 exist already
$question = new Question();
$question->setId(1);
//the tag with name PYTHON exist already
$tag = new Tag();
$tag->setName("PYTHON");
$questionTag = new QuestionTag();
$questionTag->setQuestion($question);
$questionTag->setTag($tag);
//now I call a service to put the item into DB
$questionTagPF = $this->get('facade.QuestionTagFacade');
$res = $questionTagPF->create($questionTag);
have to be written so:
//the question with Id 1 exist already
$question = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getReference('AppBundle:Question',"1");
//the tag with name PYTHON exist already
$tag = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getReference('AppBundle:Tag',"PYTHON");
$questionTag = new QuestionTag();
$questionTag->setQuestion($question);
$questionTag->setTag($tag);
//now I call a service to put the item into DB
$questionTagPF = $this->get('facade.QuestionTagFacade');
$res = $questionTagPF->create($questionTag);
The problem was that to insert a value into a relation you have to take values through the manager!