em->flush($entity) for cascading associations behaves inconsistently between "inserts" and "updates" #6209

New Issue

admin · 2026-01-22T15:28:58+01:00

admin commented

2026-01-22 15:28:58 +01:00

Originally created by @TiMESPLiNTER on GitHub (Mar 27, 2019).

Originally assigned to: @Ocramius on GitHub.

Bug Report

Q	A
BC Break	no
Version	2.6.3

Summary

The flush method for associations behaves inconsistently between "inserts" and "updates" if you provide an entity as an argument.

I have a one-to-many relation with cascade=persist,remove. While the relations' entity gets inserted together with the main entity when I call...

$em->flush($mainEntity)

...the update case ignores changes for the relations' entity and does only persist the changes in the main entity.

Current behavior

Currently only create operations persist cascading relations' entities update operations don't.

How to reproduce

Create a relation:

    $metadata->mapOneToMany([
        'fieldName' => 'translations',
        'targetEntity' => Profile::class,
        'mappedBy' => 'profile',
        'cascade' => ['persist', 'remove'],
    ]);

Insert (works as expected):

$translation = new Translation();
$translation->setLanguage('en');

$profile = new Profile();
$profile->setName('Foo');
$profile->addTranslation($translation);

$em->persist($profile);
$em->flush($profile);

The translation gets persisted together with the profile:

Update (works not as expected):

$profile = $profileRepository->getProfileByName('Foo');
$profile->setName('Bar');
$translation = $profile->getTranslation('en');
$translation->setLanguage('de');

$em->flush($profile);

Only the changes for the profile entity get persisted the changes for the translation entity are ignored.

Expected behavior

I expect that both cases behave the same. Either both ignore sub entities if I only flush a specific parent entity or both do cascade and also store the relations' entity.

Originally created by @TiMESPLiNTER on GitHub (Mar 27, 2019). Originally assigned to: @Ocramius on GitHub. ### Bug Report  | Q | A |------------ | ------ | BC Break | no | Version | 2.6.3 #### Summary The `flush` method for associations behaves inconsistently between "inserts" and "updates" if you provide an entity as an argument. I have a `one-to-many` relation with `cascade=persist,remove`. While the relations' entity gets inserted together with the main entity when I call... `$em->flush($mainEntity)` ...the update case ignores changes for the relations' entity and does only persist the changes in the main entity. #### Current behavior  Currently only create operations persist cascading relations' entities update operations don't. #### How to reproduce  Create a relation: ```php $metadata->mapOneToMany([ 'fieldName' => 'translations', 'targetEntity' => Profile::class, 'mappedBy' => 'profile', 'cascade' => ['persist', 'remove'], ]); ``` Insert (works as expected): ```php $translation = new Translation(); $translation->setLanguage('en'); $profile = new Profile(); $profile->setName('Foo'); $profile->addTranslation($translation); $em->persist($profile); $em->flush($profile); ``` The translation gets persisted together with the profile: Update (works **not** as expected): ```php $profile = $profileRepository->getProfileByName('Foo'); $profile->setName('Bar'); $translation = $profile->getTranslation('en'); $translation->setLanguage('de'); $em->flush($profile); ``` Only the changes for the profile entity get persisted the changes for the translation entity are ignored. #### Expected behavior I expect that both cases behave the same. Either both ignore sub entities if I only flush a specific parent entity or both do cascade and also store the relations' entity.

admin added the Bug Won't Fix labels 2026-01-22 15:28:58 +01:00

admin closed this issue

2026-01-22 15:28:58 +01:00

admin commented

2026-01-22 15:28:58 +01:00

@SenseException commented on GitHub (Mar 27, 2019):

The argument in flush() will be dropped and was already removed in master.

The 2.7 branch still has the argument, but I see that it hasn't a deprecation yet. We probably need one there.

@SenseException commented on GitHub (Mar 27, 2019): The argument in `flush()` will be dropped and was already removed in master. The 2.7 branch still has the argument, but I see that it hasn't a deprecation yet. We probably need one there.

admin commented

2026-01-22 15:28:59 +01:00

@Ocramius commented on GitHub (Mar 27, 2019):

I'm gonna close as won't fix this one for now though: flush($entity) will not be worked on.

@Ocramius commented on GitHub (Mar 27, 2019): I'm gonna close as `won't fix` this one for now though: `flush($entity)` will not be worked on.

admin referenced this issue

2026-01-22 16:05:46 +01:00

[PR #6210] Fix the parameter conversion for non-loaded metadata #9898

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