Symfony 2 postUpdate executed before data is stored - php

Question

I am stuck for about a day now on the following
I created a listener on my account entity, It listens to prePersist, preUpdate, postPersist and postUpdate. I thought postUpdate was executed after the data has been store in the database, but now i doubt it.
The listener
/**
* Account listener
*/
class AccountListener
{
private $container;
/**
* Constructor
*
* #param ContainerInterface $container
*/
public function __construct(ContainerInterface $container)
{
$this->container = $container;
}
/**
* Pre persist
*
* #param LifecycleEventArgs $args
*/
public function prePersist(LifecycleEventArgs $args)
{
$entity = $args->getEntity();
if ($entity instanceof Accounts) {
$this->checkIfApiCallIsNeeded($entity, $args);
}
}
/**
* pre update
*
* #param LifecycleEventArgs $args
*/
public function preUpdate(LifecycleEventArgs $args)
{
$entity = $args->getEntity();
if ($entity instanceof Accounts) {
$this->checkIfApiCallIsNeeded($entity, $args);
}
}
/**
* Post persist
*
* #param LifecycleEventArgs $args
*/
public function postPersist(LifecycleEventArgs $args)
{
$entity = $args->getEntity();
if ($entity instanceof Accounts) {
$this->callApi($entity, $args);
}
}
/**
* Post update
*
* #param LifecycleEventArgs $args
*/
public function postUpdate(LifecycleEventArgs $args)
{
$entity = $args->getEntity();
if ($entity instanceof Accounts) {
$this->callApi($entity, $args);
}
}
/**
* Checks if a update should be send to the api and store the result in db
*
* #param Accounts $account
* #param LifecycleEventArgs $args
*/
private function checkIfApiCallIsNeeded(Accounts $account, LifecycleEventArgs $args)
{
$importantProperties = array(
'contactName',
'address',
'zipPostal',
'city',
'stateProvince',
'country'
);
$callApi = 0;
$uow = $args->getEntityManager()->getUnitOfWork();
$changeset = $uow->getEntityChangeSet($account);
/**
* Check if one of the important properties has been changed
*/
foreach ($importantProperties as $property) {
if (array_key_exists($property, $changeset)) {
$callApi = 1;
}
}
/**
* Store in database
*/
$account->setNeedUpdate($callApi);
}
/**
* Update account to api
*
* #param Accounts $account
*/
private function callApi(Accounts $account, LifecycleEventArgs $args)
{
$callApi = $account->getNeedUpdate();
$accountId = $account->getId();
if ($callApi === 1) {
// Call the API
}
}
}
The listener should check if one of the important fields has been changed, if so it should send an API request (after the account is updated). However when I update my account it looks like the action inside my API still gets the old account.
Then I tried to die(var_dump($account)); inside the callApi function. And the result was that the var $account gave me the updated
entity just like I expected. BUT inside the function callApi() the data has not been stored into the database yet! (I know this because the values from die(var_dump($account)); are not equal with the values in the database). So in that case its normal that my API still gets the old account from the database.
I don't know why this happens, but to me it looks like the data gets stored after the postUpdate function has been completely executed.
I would like to know why this happens and if this is normal behavior. I also would like to know how I can make sure the API is called after the data has been stored into the database.

Answer 1

The postUpdate event is not called after the flush() but inside the flush. This is why a postFlush event exists (even if it's not a lifecycle callback).
Check for more information the official Doctrine 2 documentation chapter 9. Events.