Symfony2 lazy loading doesn't work - php

Question

I have a problem with lazy loading in symfony2/doctrine2.
I have a normal object (for example: type item) and this object has an id. If I look at the object at runtime I see that the id is set. Every other parameters like icon and amount are empty. I know, this is how lazy loading works but when I call the getters (getIcon) nothing happens. The icon attribute is still empty. I also tried to call the __load method but it doesn't help.
Sorry, forgot the code
class Character {
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
protected $id;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Entity\Item", mappedBy="character")
*/
protected $item;
/*********************************************************************
* Custom methods
*/
public function getItem() {
return $this->item;
}
}
And this is the object where the lazy loading not works.
class Item {
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
protected $id;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
*/
protected $amount;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string")
*/
protected $icon;
}
EDIT2:
Constructor of character class
public function __construct()
{
$this->item = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}

Answer 1

So what the previos comments to your initial post are pointing at, is, that you need to implemend a ManyToOne relation in your Item entity to get all your stuff working.
In yout Character Entity you have this lines of code
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Entity\Item", mappedBy="character")
*/
protected $item;
This says you have a relation to an Entity Item which mappes the relation in the attribute "character". In this attribute the relation is stored. If you look into the database, you won't find any stored relations, because you class Item does not have the described mapping attribute character. Like gp_sflover pointed out, a OneToMany relations needs to be Bidirectional an required a ManyToOne relation in the "owning" side. So what you have to do is, add the following code to your Item Entity
/**
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Entity\Character", inversedBy="item")
*/
protected $character;
The inversedBy attribute creates a bidirectional relation. Without this statement, you wouldn't be able to load getItems from your Character entity.
If you have changed your code you have to update your database and to restore the elements. After this, everything will work fine.