Got array instead of reference

[alegout]

Hello,

https://github.com/nelmio/alice/blob/v3.5.8/doc/advanced-guide.md#references

@user_{alice, bob} => @user_alice or @user_bob

If i:

client_type:

AppBundle\Entity\ClientType:
    client_type_{1..10}:
        name: '<name()>'

include:
    - client_type.yaml

AppBundle\Entity\Client:
    client_{1..20}:
        name: '<name()>'
        client_type: '@client_type_{1..10}'

I got:

Expected argument of type "AppBundle\Entity\ClientType or null", "array" given

It gives me an array with the 10 ClientType for the client_type field.

Is it normal?

Thank you

[AyrtonRicardo]

Which version are you using?
I think you are receiving a list of AppBundle\Entity\ClientType when you request using {1..10} operator.

You have option to do like this:

include:
    - client_type.yaml

AppBundle\Entity\Client:
    client_{1..20}:
        name: '<name()>'
        client_type: '<randomElement(@client_type_{1..10})>'

or simply like this:

include:
    - client_type.yaml

AppBundle\Entity\Client:
    client_{1..20}:
        name: '<name()>'
        client_type: '@client_type_*'

In the docs you provided it only says how to use the reference of the object you've created, in this case:

# this will create a collection of ClientType named as `client_type_` from 1 to 10
AppBundle\Entity\ClientType:
    client_type_{1..10}:
        name: '<name()>'

you can use its reference either:

• @client_type_1 or @client_type_2 => single instance
• @client_type_* => single instance
• @client_type_{1..10} => the whole collection you've created

[alegout]

Thank you for your help. I am using the version 3.5.8.

With @client_type_{1, 2, 3} i should have @client_type_1 or @client_type_2 or @client_type_3 but it gives me an array with the three, sounds like a bug to me.

[AyrtonRicardo]

Actually whenever you use the operator {} you automatically is creating a collection.
In you creation you define @client_type_{1, 2, 3} => then it's available to use @client_type_1 or @client_type_2 or @client_type_3.
The operator to get a random one is @client_type_*

To solve your problem you can follow the comment above it will be fine for you.

include:
    - client_type.yaml

AppBundle\Entity\Client:
    client_{1..20}:
        name: '<name()>'
        client_type: '<randomElement(@client_type_{1..10})>'

[alegout]

I am using the randomElement feature, It is just to ask if the doc is wrong or not and to report it if it is the case.

Because of @user_{alice, bob} => @user_alice or @user_bob in https://github.com/nelmio/alice/blob/v3.5.8/doc/advanced-guide.md#references

Closing here, thank you for your help.

[theofidry]

Let's check if that's a bug or the doc that is not correct :)

[stof]

To me, this is a documentation issue. It should say and, not or.
https://github.com/nelmio/alice/blob/v3.11.0/doc/relations-handling.md#multiple-references documents this syntax as producing an array.

[Seros]

I just face a similar issue when trying to receive one single entity but get an array of entities when declaring @user_{alice, bob}. So I found this issue and tried to apply the suggested workaround <randomElement(@user_{alice, bob})> but this throws an exception:

Nelmio\Alice\Throwable\Exception\Generator\DebugUnexpectedValueException : An error occurred while generating the fixture ...: Could not resolve value during the generation process.

I checked and it basically tries to resolve user_ instead of one of the requested identifiers. The internal exception is from vendor/nelmio/alice/src/Throwable/Exception/Generator/Resolver/FixtureNotFoundExceptionFactory.php:
Could not find the fixture "user_".
Does anyone know a workaround for this or is this rather a bug/race condition in resolving the references and calling the function randomElement?