Why does patchEntity() cut out image information? (CakePHP3) - cakephp

Question

Using the POST method $data = $this->request->getData(); , I get the archive:
[
'category_id' => '62',
'title' => 'Name-1',
'body' => '<p>Text</p>
',
'price' => '30',
'is_new' => '1',
'img' => [
'tmp_name' => 'D:\Web\OpenServer\userdata\temp\php70D9.tmp',
'error' => (int) 0,
'name' => 'IronMan.jpg',
'type' => 'image/jpeg',
'size' => (int) 131830
]
]
By preparing these data for the record in the database:
$product = $this->Products->patchEntity($product, $data);
But the patchEntity() method cuts out all the information about the image.
I get:
object(App\Model\Entity\Product) {
'category_id' => (int) 62,
'title' => 'Name-1',
'body' => '<p>Text</p>
',
'price' => (float) 30,
'is_new' => (int) 1,
'img' => '', // <--- empty :(
'[new]' => true,
'[accessible]' => [
'category_id' => true,
'title' => true,
'body' => true,
'price' => true,
'img' => true,
'is_new' => true,
'created' => true,
'modified' => true,
'category' => true
],
'[dirty]' => [
'category_id' => true,
'title' => true,
'body' => true,
'price' => true,
'is_new' => true,
'img' => true
],
'[original]' => [],
'[virtual]' => [],
'[errors]' => [],
'[invalid]' => [],
'[repository]' => 'Products'
}
It can be fixed? Tell me at least about. Thank you.

Answer 1

When patching/creating an entity, the data is bein marshalled according to the respective columns data type, as you can see for other properties like price, which is converted from a string to a float.
Your img column is probably of the type string, causing the marshaller to convert the data accordingly (see \Cake\Database\Type\StringType::marshal()).
There are various ways to avoid that, for example using a different property name that doesn't map to an existing column, like img_upload, and then after moving the upload, manually set the resulting filesystem path to the img property and save that.
That could also be done in the beforeMarshal event in your ProductsTable class, so that the view template can continue to use the img property:
public function beforeMarshal(
\Cake\Event\Event $event,
\ArrayObject $data,
\ArrayObject $options
) {
if (isset($data['img'])) {
$data['img_upload'] = $data['img'];
unset($data['img']);
}
}
You could also create a custom database type for the img column, one which doesn't marshal the data to a string, but just passes it on:
namespace App\Database\Type;
use Cake\Database\Type;
class FileType extends Type
{
public function marshal($value)
{
return $value;
}
}
You'd have to assign the filesystem path anyways though, you'd basically just avoid using a separate/temporary property.
See also
Cookbook > Database Access & ORM > Saving Data > Modifying Request Data Before Building Entities
Cookbook > Database Access & ORM > Database Basics > Adding Custom Types

Answer 2

I do not know how much this is correct, but in the end I did the following and everything works as I need:
In ProductsController:
public function add()
{
$product = $this->Products->newEntity();
if ($this->request->is('post')) {
$data = $this->request->getData();
$product = $this->Products->patchEntity($product, $data);
// If there is a picture that we checked (by the method of validationDefault, when calling patchEntity) and have already uploaded to the server in a temporary folder, then
if($product->img_upload['name']){
// We call the user method of processing the downloaded image
$product = $this->_customUploadImg($product);
// Leave only the name of the new file, adding it to the new property, with the name corresponding to the name of the table in the database
$product->img = $product->img_upload['name'];
}
// Delete an unnecessary property
unset($product->img_upload);
if ($this->Products->save($product)) {
// ...
}
// ...
}
In Product.php:
class Product extends Entity{
protected $_accessible = [
'category_id' => true,
'title' => true,
'body' => true,
'price' => true,
'is_new' => true,
'created' => true,
'modified' => true,
'category' => true,
// 'img' => true,
// Here we specify not 'img' as in the database table, but 'img_upload', in order for ProductsController not to delete our data file about the uploaded file when patchEntity was called.
'img_upload' => true,
];
}
In ProductsTable.php:
public function validationDefault(Validator $validator)
{
//...
$validator
->allowEmpty('img_upload', 'create')
->add('img_upload', [
'uploadError' => [
'rule' => 'uploadError',
'message' => 'Error loading picture'
],
'mimeType' => [
'rule' => ['mimeType', ['image/jpeg', 'image/jpg', 'image/png', 'image/gif']],
'message' => 'Only image files are allowed to be uploaded: JPG, PNG и GIF'
],
'fileSize' => [
'rule' => ['fileSize', '<=', '2MB'],
'message' => 'The maximum file size should be no more than 2 MB'
]
]);
//...
}
In add.ctp:
echo $this->Form->create($product, ['type' => 'file']) ?>
// ...
echo $this->Form->control('img_upload', ['type' => 'file', 'label'=>'Product photo']);
//...
Thanks "ndm" and "mark"!