Doctrine 2 - (sometimes) duplicate related entities on flush

Question

I have php worker which is executed every 60 sec. The worker go thru articles and publish them.

I have repository:

public function findAllUnpublished()
{
    $query = $this->entityManager->createQuery('SELECT i FROM Extra\Item\Item i
            WHERE i.status = :status')
            ->setParameter('status', ItemStatusEnum::UNPUBLISHED);
    return $query->getResult();
}

and facade

public function publishUnpublished()
{
    $items = $this->cliRepository->findAllUnpublished();
    foreach ($items as $item) {
        $item->setPublish(TRUE);
        $this->entityManager->persist($item);
    }
    $this->entityManager->flush();
    $this->itemChangedObserver->notifyBatchPublished($items); // this clear cache on web server
    return $items;
}

and the worker where is called the facade

public function execute()
{
    $this->logger->logMessage(ILogger::DEBUG, 'Start publising');

    $items = $this->itemFacade->publishUnpublished();
    $itemsIds = array_map(function ($item) {
        return $item->getId();
    }, $items);
    $this->logger->logMessage(
        ILogger::DEBUG,
        'Published %d items (%s)',
        count($items),
        implode(', ', $itemsIds)
    );

    $this->logger->logMessage(ILogger::DEBUG, 'End publising');

    return IJob::OK;
}

Problem is that sometimes(not every turn) the worker duplicate related images in gallery.

Article:

/**
 * @var \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
 *
 * @OneToMany(targetEntity="gallery", mappedBy="article", cascade={"persist", "remove"})
 * @OrderBy({"position" = "ASC"})
 *
 */
private $gallery;

Gallery:

/**
 * @var \Article
 *
 * @ManyToOne(targetEntity="Article", inversedBy="gallery")
 */
private $article;

Has it ever happened to someone?

Answer 1

Calling EntityManager::persist() on an existing entry can cause side effects on associations.

So, just remove this line and keep only your flush:

$items = $this->cliRepository->findAllUnpublished();

foreach ($items as $item) {
    $item->setPublish(TRUE);
}

$this->entityManager->flush();

// ...

For more, look here.

EDIT

You should use EntityManager::merge($object) rather than EntityManager::persist($object), e.g:

foreach ($items as $item) {
    $item->setPublish(TRUE);
    $this->entityManager->merge($item);
}

This will create a new entry if no reference can be found, otherwise this will update an existing entry.

More about merging entities.