ORM Self-referenced entity not persisting into database properly - database

Question

ive been trying to figure this out for 2 hours now and i cant seem to understand what went wrong.
I am using Symfony2 and FOSUserBundle.
I created a User entity which extends FOSUserBundle's BaseUser class. Within this User entity, i have 3 variables, id, my_mentors and my_mentees. More details are below:
class User extends BaseUser
{
/**
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
protected $id;
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="User", mappedBy="my_mentees")
*/
protected $my_mentors;
/**
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="User", inversedBy="my_mentors")
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="mentor_and_mentee_relationship",
* joinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="user_id", referencedColumnName="id")},
* inverseJoinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="mentors_or_mentees_user_id", referencedColumnName="id")}
* )
*/
protected $my_mentees;
public function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
$this->my_mentors = new ArrayCollection();
$this->my_mentees = new ArrayCollection();
}
public function __toString()
{
return $this->getUsername();
}
/**
* Get id
*
* #return integer
*/
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
/**
* Add my_mentors
*
* #param Fitness\FitBundle\Entity\User $myMentors
*/
public function addUser(\Fitness\FitBundle\Entity\User $myMentors)
{
$this->my_mentors[] = $myMentors;
}
/**
* Get my_mentors
*
* #return Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
*/
public function getMyMentors()
{
return $this->my_mentors;
}
/**
* Get my_mentees
*
* #return Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
*/
public function getMyMentees()
{
return $this->my_mentees;
}
}
I created the self reference because a Mentee(which is a User) will subscribe to a Mentor(which is also a User). I tried to do this using the following function:
public function subscribeAction($menteeID, $mentorID)
{
$em = $this->getDoctrine()
->getEntityManager();
$mentor = $em->getRepository('TestBundle:User')
->find($mentorID);
$mentee = $em->getRepository('TestBundle:User')
->find($menteeID);
$currentMentors = $mentee->getMyMentors();
if ($currentMentors->contains($mentor))
$this->get('session')->setFlash('subscribe-notice', 'You have already signed up to this mentor!');
else
{
$mentee->setIsMentor(false);
$mentee->addUser($mentor);
$mentor->addUser($mentee);
$em->persist($mentee);
$em->persist($mentor);
$em->flush();
$this->get('session')->setFlash('subscribe-notice', 'Subscription succesful!');
}
return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('TestBundle_testpage', array('id' => $mentor->getMentorProfile()->getId()) ));
}
The problem here is that when i check the database, it does not persist the data. The mentor-mentee relationship information is not stored in the table "mentor_and_mentee_relationship" as declared by the annotation.
I persisted both $mentor and $mentee in an attempt to get it to work, but apparently it doesnt.
Could my ORM annotation be declared wrongly?

Answer 1

You are using the same function (addUser) to add a mentor and to add a mentee. This is wrong. First you need two different setters in your entity (I changed the name of addUser to make it clear)
/**
* Add my_mentors
*
* #param Fitness\FitBundle\Entity\User $myMentors
*/
public function addMentor(\Fitness\FitBundle\Entity\User $myMentors)
{
$this->my_mentors[] = $myMentors;
}
/**
* Add my_mentees
*
* #param Fitness\FitBundle\Entity\User $myMentees
*/
public function addMentee(\Fitness\FitBundle\Entity\User $myMentees)
{
$this->my_mentees[] = $myMentees;
}
Then in your controller do:
$mentee->addMentor($mentor);
$mentor->addMentee($mentee);