Many to many entity doesn't save in db Symfony

Question

I have a problem that removeElement function doesn't delete from database the many to many element. For understanding better, I will present my code:

class User {

  /**
 * @var Collection|CandidateSocialLink[]
 *
 * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="UserSocialLink", mappedBy="user", cascade={"persist", "remove"})
 * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="user_social_link_id", referencedColumnName="id")
 *
 */
private $socialLinks;

class UserSocialLink {

   /**
   * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="User", inversedBy="socialLinks", cascade={"persist", "remove"})
   * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="user_id", referencedColumnName="id")
   * */
   private $user;

   /**
  * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="SocialLink", cascade={"persist", "remove"}))
  * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="social_link_id", referencedColumnName="id")
  *
  * */
  private $socialLink;

 }


class SocialLink {
 - frankly I don't have anything related to this relationship because I didn't want to have many things that I don't use.
}

I have a function in User:

public function removeSocialLink(UserSocialLink $removeSocialLink)
{
    if ($this->socialLinks->contains($removeSocialLink)) {
        $this->socialLinks->removeElement($removeSocialLink);
    }

    return $this;
}

And then I call this function:

public function save(CandidateInterface $candidate, array $arguments = ['flush' => true]): CandidateInterface
{
    $this->getEntityManager()->persist($candidate);

    if (true === $arguments['flush']) {
        $this->getEntityManager()->flush();
    }

    return $candidate;
}

When I return the entity after this operation, the entity doesn't have the social links, but in the db still appears. I think I'm not doing something good regarding the annotation, but what? If any of you has some opinion, please share.

Unclear... And no ManyToMany relation unlike what is wrote in the title... — Preciel, Aug 06 '18 at 21:01
This is not a manyToMany relation. For a manyToMany you don't need to write a jointable-entity. Doctrine wil create a jointable automaticly. Check this out: https://www.doctrine-project.org/projects/doctrine-orm/en/2.6/reference/association-mapping.html#many-to-many-unidirectional — Frank B, Aug 06 '18 at 21:03
Yes I know, but I have an additional column in UserSocialLink but I just didn't specify here because I thought is not necessary. So the only way for a many to many relationship to accept an additional column is 'to tranform' the many-to-many annotation into many-to-one. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3542243/doctrine2-best-way-to-handle-many-to-many-with-extra-columns-in-reference-table — IleNea, Aug 06 '18 at 21:08
You said "the entity doesn't have the social links, but in the db still appears", so user_social_link_id has null value on the user table or not? do you expect that user_social_link_id is set to null and also that the User social link record is deleted? — fgamess, Aug 07 '18 at 06:48
Oh, I don't get it.. in user table I don't have any user_social_link_id, but in the others it manifests as if everything would be normal. Values and stuff. — IleNea, Aug 07 '18 at 07:13

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 07 '18 at 11:34

In your case doctrine do not considers the changes you have made to socialLinks array to force the change clone the array:

public function removeSocialLink(UserSocialLink $removeSocialLink)
{
    if ($this->socialLinks->contains($removeSocialLink)) {
        $this->socialLinks->removeElement($removeSocialLink);
        $this->socialLinks = clone $this->socialLinks;
    }
    return $this;
}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 10 '18 at 11:57

Let's show you a manytomany relation, for example Doctor and Skill: a doctor can have many skill and a skill can choice by many doctors

Your owner side

class Doctor implements DoctorInterface
{

     /**
     * @var Collection
     *
     * @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Skill", mappedBy="doctors", cascade={"persist"})
     */
    protected $skills;

     /**
     * Don't forget initial your collection property 
     * Doctor constructor.
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->skills = new ArrayCollection();
    }

        /**
     * @return Collection
     */
    public function getSkills(): Collection
    {
        return $this->skills;
    }

    /**
     * @param SkillInterface $skill
     */
    public function addSkill(SkillInterface $skill): void
    {
        if ($this->getSkills()->contains($skill)) {

            return;
        } else {

            $this->getSkills()->add($skill);
            $skill->addDoctor($this);
        }
    }

    /**
     * @param SkillInterface $skill
     */
    public function removeSkill(SkillInterface $skill): void
    {
        if (!$this->getSkills()->contains($skill)) {

            return;
        } else {

            $this->getSkills()->removeElement($skill);
            $skill->removeDoctor($this);
        }
    }
}

Your invers side

class Skill implements SkillInterface
{   
     /**
     * @var Collection
     *
     * @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Doctor", inversedBy="skills", fetch="EXTRA_LAZY")
     */
    protecte    

    /**
     * Skill constructor.
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->doctors = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    /**
     * @return Collection
     */
    public function getDoctors(): Collection
    {
        return $this->doctors;
    }

    /**
     * @param DoctorInterface $doctor
     */
    public function addDoctor(DoctorInterface $doctor): void
    {
        if ($this->getDoctors()->contains($doctor)) {

            return;
        } else {

            $this->getDoctors()->add($doctor);
        }
    }

    /**
     * @param DoctorInterface $doctor
     */
    public function removeDoctor(DoctorInterface $doctor): void
    {
        if (!$this->getDoctors()->contains($doctor)) {

            return;
        } else {

            $this->getDoctors()->removeElement($doctor);
        }
    }
}

Many to many entity doesn't save in db Symfony

2 Answers2