Doctrine does not update a simple array type field

Question

Short Story (Edit)

It is possible to store an array instead of a mapped association. In Symfony2, this is fairly easy using the collection Field Type. For example, using this technique, you could store an array of text fields that populate an array events field. However, to update an array, there is a trick, and this trick is beautifully explained by @Vadim Ashikhman in the accepted answer.

Long Story

Sometimes it is useful and more efficient to store an array instead of a mapped association. However, once created, it remains complicated to update this Array if the size of that array does not change?

Many people have a similar issue but nobody found a proper solution to this problem.

A team can organise many events. These events are simply stored within an array using Doctrine instead of using a OneToMany association. Therefore, the entity Event is not mapped with Doctrine.

Entity Event (not mapped with Doctrine)

<?php

namespace Acme\TestBundle\Entity;

...

class Event
{

    /**
     * @Assert\NotBlank
     */
    private $name;

    public function setName($name)
    {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return $this->name;
    }


}

Entity Team

<?php

namespace Acme\TestBundle\Entity;

...

/**
 * @ORM\Entity()
 * @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks
 * @ORM\Table(name="teams")  
 */
class Team 
{

/**
     * @ORM\Column(type="array")
     * @var array
     */
    protected $events;


    public function addEvent($event)
    {
        if (!in_array($event, $this->events, true)) {
            $this->events[] = $event;
        }

        return $this;
    }

    public function removeEvent($event)
    {
        if (false !== $key = array_search($event, $this->events, true)) {
            unset($this->events[$key]);
            $this->events = array_values($this->events);
        }

        return $this;
    }

    public function getEvents()
    {
        return $this->events;
    }

    public function setEvents(array $events)
    {
        $this->events = array();

        foreach ($events as $event) {
            $this->addEvent($event);
        }

        return $this;
    }

Event Form

<?php
namespace Acme\TestBundle\Form\Type;

...

class EventType extends AbstractType
{

    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        parent::buildForm($builder, $options);

        $builder->add('name', 'text');
    }

    public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
    {
        $resolver->setDefaults(array(
            'data_class' => 'Acme\TestBundle\Entity\Event',
            'cascade_validation' => true,
        ));
    }

    ...
}

Team Form

<?php

namespace Acme\TestBundle\Form\Type;

...

class TeamType extends AbstractType
{

    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        parent::buildForm($builder, $options);

        $builder->add('events','collection', array(
            'type' => new EventType(),
            'allow_add'   => true,
            'allow_delete' => true,
            'prototype' => true,
            'by_reference' => false,
            'options' => array('data_class' => 'Acme\TestBundle\Entity\Event'),
            )
        );

    }

    public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
    {
        $resolver->setDefaults(array(
            'data_class' => 'Acme\TestBundle\Entity\Team',
        ));
    }
    ...

}

The Controller

/**
 * Update a team
 *
 * @Route("update/{team_id}", name="updateTeamFromId")
 * @Template("AcmeTestBundle:Team:teamUpdate.html.twig")
 */
public function updateTeamAction($team_id, Request $request)
{

    $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

    $repository= $em->getRepository('AcmeTestBundle:Team');

    $team_to_update = $repository->find($team_id);

    $form = $this->createForm(new teamType(), $team_to_update);

    if ($request->getMethod() == 'POST')
    {
        $form->bind($request);

        if ($form->isValid()){

            $em->persist($team_to_update);
            $em->flush();

            return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('homepage'))  ;
        }
    }

    return array(
    'form' => $form->createView(),
    'team_id' => $team_id,
    );

}

Answer 1

You can find the answer here:

How to force Doctrine to update array type fields?

Refs:

Doctrine uses identical operator === to compare changes between old and new values. The operator used on the same object with different data always return true. There is the other way to solve this issue, you can clone an object that needs to be changed.

$items = $myEntityObject->getItems(); 
$items[0] = clone $items[0];
$items[0]->setSomething(123); 
$myEntityObject->setItems($items);

Or change the setItems() method

public function setItems($items) 
{
    if (!empty($items) && $items === $this->items) {
        reset($items);
        $key = key($items);
        $items[$key] = clone $items[$key];
    }
    $this->items = $items; 
}

Answer 2

You can try this inside the controller:

public function updateTeamAction($team_id, Request $request)
{

    $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

    $repository= $em->getRepository('AcmeTestBundle:Team');

    $team_to_update = $repository->find($team_id);

    $form = $this->createForm(new teamType(), $team_to_update);

    if ($request->getMethod() == 'POST')
    {
        $form->bind($request);

        if ($form->isValid()){
            $events = $team_to_update->getEvents();
            foreach($events as $key => $value){
                $team_to_update->removeEvent($key);
            }
            $em->flush();
            $team_to_update->setEvents($events);
            $em->persist($team_to_update);
            $em->flush();

            return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('homepage'))  ;
        }
    }

    return array(
    'form' => $form->createView(),
    'team_id' => $team_id,
    );

}

There is probably a beter way to do this and i know this isnt a nice way to do it but till you (or someone else) finds that solution you can use this as a temporary fix.