Symfony3 - String returned instead of integer

Question

In my User entity, I have this:

/**
* @ORM\Entity
* @ORM\Table(name="users")
*/
class User extends BaseUser
{
    /**
    * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
    * @ORM\Id
    * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
    */
     protected $id;

    /**
    * @var \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection
    * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Blog\BlogBundle\Entity  \Entry",mappedBy="author")
    */
    protected $entries;

This is my full Entry entity.

<?php

namespace Blog\BlogBundle\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

/**
 * Entry
 *
 * @ORM\Table(name="entry")
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="Blog\BlogBundle\Repository\EntryRepository")
 */
class Entry
{
    /**
     * @var int
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @var string
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="title", type="string", length=255)
     */
    private $title;

    /**
     * @var string
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="book", type="text")
     */
    private $book;

    /**
     * @var \DateTime
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="timestamp", type="datetime")
     */
    private $timestamp;

    /**
    * @var AppBundle\Entity
    * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\User",inversedBy="entries")
    * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="author", referencedColumnName="id")
    */
    private $author;

    /**
    * @var \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection
    * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Blog\BlogBundle\Entity\Reviews",mappedBy="book_id")
    */
    protected $reviews;

    /**
     * Get id
     *
     * @return int
     */
    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    /**
     * Set title
     *
     * @param string $title
     *
     * @return Entry
     */
    public function setTitle($title)
    {
        $this->title = $title;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get title
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getTitle()
    {
        return $this->title;
    }

    /**
     * Set book
     *
     * @param string $book
     *
     * @return Entry
     */
    public function setBook($book)
    {
        $this->book = $book;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get book
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getBook()
    {
        return $this->book;
    }

    /**
     * Set timestamp
     *
     * @param \DateTime $timestamp
     *
     * @return Entry
     */
    public function setTimestamp($timestamp)
    {
        $this->timestamp = $timestamp;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get timestamp
     *
     * @return \DateTime
     */
    public function getTimestamp()
    {
        return $this->timestamp;
    }

    /**
     * Set author
     *
     * @param \AppBundle\Entity\User $author
     *
     * @return Entry
     */
    public function setAuthor(\AppBundle\Entity\User $author = null)
    {
        $this->author = $author;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get author
     *
     * @return \AppBundle\Entity\User
     */
    public function getAuthor()
    {
        return $this->author;
    }

    /**
     * Get author ID
     *
     * @return \AppBundle\Entity\User
     */
    public function getAuthorId()
    {
        $id = $this->author;

        return $this->$id;

    }

    public function __toString()
    {
        try {
            return (string) $this->id;
        } catch (Exception $exception) {
            return '';
        }
    }
}

From this piece of code I am trying to retrieve Author ID, but instead author name is being returned. I presume this is because I am converting to string at the end. If I remove it, I get this error: symfony2 Catchable Fatal Error: Object of class could not be converted to string

To get the link, I am doing the following:

• Setting path author with parameter of id in routing.yml of the bundle which triggers authorAction($id) inside BookController. Expecting an integer to be passed.
• authorAction($id) sets up Doctrine Manager, calls getAllBooksByAuthor() function in a repository where a relevant query returns all books by author with id and renders the twig template.
• The link is generated in the twig template, but instead parameter passed is author name - which is a string, not an integer.

How can I do it so author ID is passed instead of author name?

I'm stuck here and I need Entry entity to be able to handle both strings and integers.

Answer 1

Specifically this is the change:

/**
 * Get author ID
 *
 * @return intger
 */
public function getAuthorId()
{
    return $this->author->getId();
}

Note: the @return documentation should be changed to show it's returning an integer.