Symfony submit button doesn't flush/update the entity properly

Question

My entity "corporation" has two ManyToMany relationships with

1. entity "User" and
2. entity "Agency"

The related data, I'd like to display as a table with a EntityType-dropdown to (un-)select data. Therefor I have the following form:

$builder
    ->add('usercorporations', EntityType::class, array(
      'class' => 'UserBundle:User',
      'query_builder' => function (EntityRepository $er) use ($corporationMarket) {
        return $er->createQueryBuilder('e')
        ->andWhere(':marketIds MEMBER OF e.markets')
        ->setParameter('marketIds',$corporationMarket)
        ->orderBy('e.lastName', 'ASC');
      },
      'choice_label' => function($user) {
        return $user->getFirstName() . ' ' . $user->getLastName() ;
      },
      'expanded' => false, 'multiple' => true,
      'required'=>false,
      'by_reference' => false,
      'empty_value' => "label.select_user",
      'translation_domain' => 'Agency'))

  ->add('agencies', EntityType::class, array(
   'class' => 'AppBundle:Agency',
   'query_builder' => function (EntityRepository $er){
   return $er->createQueryBuilder('a')
   ->addOrderBy('a.account', 'ASC');
   },
   'label' => 'label.agencies',
   'choice_label' => function($agency) {
     return $agency->getId() . ' - ' . $agency->getAccount() . ' - ' . $agency->getCityName() . ', ' . $agency->getState();
   },
   'expanded' => false, 'multiple' => true,
   'required' => false,
   'translation_domain' => 'Agency',
  ));

my twig template includes the two dropdowns as well as two tables for each of the entities.

      {{ form_start(form) }}
  {# This renders a red banner if the form contains errors.
    If the form variable is not called "form", pass it explicitly. #}
  {% include 'Form/form_errors_banner.html.twig' %}
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-12">
      <div class="panel panel-default">
        <div class="panel-body">
          <legend>{{ 'label.assignedUsers'|trans }}</legend>
          {{ form_widget(form.usercorporations) }}
          <br>
          <br>
          {% include 'UserBundle:User:AssignedUsers.html.twig' %}
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="col-md-12">
      <div class="panel panel-default">
        <div class="panel-body">
          <legend>{{ 'label.assignedAgencies'|trans }}</legend>
          {{ form_widget(form.agencies) }}
          <br>
          <br>
          {% include 'AppBundle:Agency:AssignedAgencies.html.twig' with {'entity': corporation} %}
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div>
      <input type="submit" class="btn-primary btn" value="{{ 'label.apply'|trans }}"/>
    </div>
    {{ form_end(form) }}

  </div>

I'm using the tables (AssignedUsers and AssignedAgencies) on other pages too, that's all working fine.

So now my problem: I'd like to have the possibility to simply add and remove users or agencies. By just deselecting e.g. a user from the dropdown and then submitting, it's working, the user isn't assigned to the corporation anymore. Somehow, the same procedure is not working for the agencies. I don't know why though, I dumped the data prior to and after the flush and it's dumping the correct data, but when I return to the corporation, nothing changed. My controller action:

/**
 * @Route("/corporation/{id}/{page}", name="appBundle_corporation", requirements={"id" = "\d+",  "page" = "\d+"}, defaults={"page" = 1}))
 */
public function corporationAction($id, Request $request, $page)
{
  $repository = $this->getDoctrine()
    ->getRepository('AppBundle:Corporation');
  $em = $this->getDoctrine ()->getManager ();
  $corporation = $repository->findOneById($id);
  /*
  * CREATE PAGINATION FOR TABLES
  */
  //assigned Users
  $assignedUsers = $corporation->getUsercorporations();

  $assignedAgencies = $corporation->getAgencies();

  dump($assignedAgencies);

  $form = $this->createForm(CorporationAssignmentType::class,$corporation, array(
    'corporationMarket' => $corporationMarket,
  ));
  $form->handleRequest($request);

  if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid()) {
    $em->persist($corporation);
    $em->flush();
  dump($assignedAgencies);
    $this->addFlash(
      'success',
      'Your changes were saved!'
    );
    return $this->redirectToRoute('appBundle_corporation', array('id' => $corporation->getId()));
  }

  return $this->render('AppBundle::corporation.html.twig', array(
    'item' => $corporation,
    'corporation'=>$corporation,
    'assignedUsers'=>$userTable,
    'assignedAgencies' => $agencyTable,
    'form' => $form->createView(),
  ));
}

any ideas why it's flushing the users but not the agencies?

Answer 1

I solved my problem that way, but it might be that @ASOlivieri 's answer could've helped es well. What I did initially is:

in Entity Agency

  /**
 * @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\Corporation", inversedBy="agencies", cascade={"persist"})
 * @ORM\JoinTable(name="app_agency_corporations",
 *   joinColumns={@ORM\JoinColumn(name="agency_id", referencedColumnName="iata8")},
 *   inverseJoinColumns={@ORM\JoinColumn(name="corporation_id", referencedColumnName="ucid")})
 * @var \AppBundle\Entity\Corporation
 **/
private $corporations;

in Entity Corporation

/**
* @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="AppBundle\Entity\Agency", mappedBy="corporations")
**/
private $agencies;

when switching it --> the shorter code to the Agency's property corporations and the longer code about the JoinTable etc. to the Corporation's property agencies it worked.

If anybody could explain to me why this is the solution, I'd be happy!