CakePHP 3 hasMany update strange behaviour - cakephp

Question

I have JobsTable:
This is relation definition:
$this->hasMany( 'JobContracts', [
'foreignKey' => 'job_id'
] );
Saving code:
$entity = $this->patchEntity( $entity, $toSave, [
'fieldList' => ['notes],
'associated' => [
'JobContracts' => ['fieldList' => ['id', 'checked']]
]
] );
And now:
if I put this notes in fieldList then JobContracts are NOT saved properly.
If I remove fieldList, then I am able to save it properly.
Question is Why? I need to control base model fields also. Any suggestions?
Ive already checked: http://book.cakephp.org/3.0/en/orm/saving-data.html#avoiding-property-mass-assignment-attacks

Answer 1

You need to allow assigning the association property too, not only notes. If you don't, then the associated data is never going to be set on the resulting entity, and consequently is not going to be saved.
Check the docs that you've linked again, the tags example shows exactly that:
// Only allow changing the title and tags
// and the tag name is the only column that can be set
$entity = $this->patchEntity($entity, $data, [
'fieldList' => ['title', 'tags'],
'associated' => ['Tags' => ['fieldList' => ['name']]]
]);
$this->save($entity);
http://book.cakephp.org/3.0/en/orm/saving-data.html#avoiding-property-mass-assignment-attacks
So, add job_contracts to the field list, and you should be good.