How to conceive a Symfony entity? - forms

Question

I create a Symfony app about "X-Files".
I have several entities among which "Episode" and "Charactor".
Episode has a ManyToMany relation with CharActor.
When I add an episode with the form created in the twig and managed by "EpisodeType", it does not properly update the charactor table. Well, logically, but not really as I wish.
Below is an extract of "_form.html.twig".
form.resume and others before properly update the table "episode".
form.charActors updates the table "charactor", but not properly.
<div class="formGroup">
{{ form_label(form.resume, "Résumé", {"label_attr": {"class": "formLabels"}}) }}
{{ form_widget(form.resume, {"attr": {"class": "formWidgets", "rows": "5"}}) }}
</div>
<div class="formGroup">
{{ form_label(form.charActors, "Personnages/Acteurs", {"label_attr": {"class": "formLabels"}}) }}
{{ form_widget(form.charActors, {"attr": {"class": "formWidgetsActors"}}) }}
</div>
Below is "EpisodeType".
<?php
namespace App\Form;
use App\Entity\CharActor;
use App\Entity\Episode;
use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use App\Repository\CharActorRepository;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\IntegerType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\TextType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\DateType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\TextareaType;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Form\Type\EntityType;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolver;
class EpisodeType extends AbstractType
{
private $charActorRepository;
public function __construct(CharActorRepository $charActorRepository)
{
$this->charActorRepository = $charActorRepository;
}
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options): void
{
$builder
->add('numberSeason', IntegerType::class)
->add('numberEpisode', IntegerType::class)
->add('originalTitle', TextType::class)
->add('frenchTitle', TextType::class)
->add('frenchDiff', DateType::class, [
"widget" => "choice",
"format" => "d M y",
"years" => range(1993, 2019)])
->add('scenario', TextType::class)
->add('realisation', TextType::class)
->add('resume', TextareaType::class)
->add('charActors', EntityType::class, [
"multiple" => true, // Permet de faire plusieurs sélections.
"class" => CharActor::class, // Recherche les choix dans cette entité.
"choice_label" => "name", // Utilise cette propriété comme option visible.
])
->add('image', TextType::class)
;
}
public function configureOptions(OptionsResolver $resolver): void
{
$resolver->setDefaults([
'data_class' => Episode::class,
]);
}
}
What is wrong is that in my charactor table, which has the fields "name" (with a string such as "Agent Scully : Gillian Anderson") and "episodesNb" (with an array such as ["1-01","1-02","1-03"]), it creates a new line with these 2 fields empty.
But what I would like to obtain would be, if for example I select Scully in the EntityType, to update the array in "episodesNb" with the new episode number and have as a result ["1-01","1-02","1-03", "1-04"].
Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

If you have a coherent model for your need as mentioned #simon.ro , such as:
class Episode
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="App\Settings\Domain\Character")
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="episode_character",
* joinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="episode_id", referencedColumnName="id")},
* inverseJoinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="character_id", referencedColumnName="id")}
* )
*/
private Collection $attachedCharacters;
Your type just need to look like that :
->add('attachedCharacters', EntityType::class, [
'choices' => $this->charatersRepository->findAll(),
'choice_value' => 'fullName',
'multiple' => true
])