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,
);
}
