Doctrine and ZF2- Working with Associations (inserting) - doctrine-orm

Question

Entity User
class User {
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer", nullable=false)
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
*/
protected $id;
...
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Controleitor\Model\Entity\Account", mappedBy="user")
*/
protected $userAccount;
public function __construct() {
$this->userAccount = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
public function getUserAccount() {
return $this->userAccount;
}
...
}
Entity Account
class Account{
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer", nullable=false)
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
*/
private $id;
/**
*
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="JasUser\Model\Entity\User", inversedBy="userAccount")
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="user_has_account",
* joinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="idAccount", referencedColumnName="id")},
* inverseJoinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="idUser", referencedColumnName="id")}
* )
*/
private $user;
public function __construct(array $options = null) {
$this->user = new \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection();
}
...
}
Test:
$user = $this->entityManager->getRepository('User')->findOneById($id);
$user->getUserAccount()->add($account);
$this->entityManager->persist($account);
$this->entityManager->flush();
$id = $entity->getId();
It gets the user, the userAccount and also inserts the new record account in the db, but it doesn't adds the record in the user_has_account table for the manytomany association between user and account with the add method as I was expecting..

Answer 1

Looks like you've got owning/inverse sides of your relation backwards.
The owning side has to use the inversedBy attribute of the OneToOne, ManyToOne, or ManyToMany mapping declaration. The inversedBy attribute contains the name of the association-field on the inverse-side.
Changes made only to the inverse side of an association are ignored. Make sure to update both sides of a bidirectional association (or at least the owning side, from Doctrine’s point of view)
This can be somewhat annoying.
The preferred solution is to only touch the Collections internally. So instead of having your calling code do $user->getUserAccount()->add($account), implement it like this:
<?php
class Account {
// ...
public function addUser($user){
$this->users->add($user);
}
}
class User {
// ...
public function addAccount($account){
// relation must be added from the owning side
$account->addUser($this);
}
}