Editing Slug using Gedmo TreeSlugHandler

Question

I have an entity that is hierarchical using the Gedmo Tree Doctrine extension in Symfony 2. The code for the Category entity is:

<?php

namespace MD\Entity;

use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

use Gedmo\Mapping\Annotation as Gedmo;

use MD\Entity\Extension\Treeable;

/**
 * Category
 *
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="MD\Entity\Repository\CategoryRepository")
 *
 * @Gedmo\Tree(type="nested")
 */
class Category
{
    /**
     * Entity Extensions
     */
    use Treeable;


    /**
     * The ID of the category
     *
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */
    protected $id;

    /**
     * The title of the category
     *
     * @var string
     *
     * @ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
     *
     * @Assert\NotBlank(message="category.title.not_blank")
     * @Assert\Length(
     *      max=255,
     *      maxMessage="category.title.length.max"
     * )
     */
    protected $title;

    /**
     * The description of the category
     *
     * @var string
     *
     * @ORM\Column(type="text")
     *
     * @Assert\NotBlank(message="category.description.not_blank")
     */
    protected $description;

    /**
     * The parent of the category
     *
     * @var Category
     *
     * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Category", inversedBy="children")
     * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="parent_id", referencedColumnName="id", onDelete="CASCADE")
     *
     * @Gedmo\TreeParent
     */
    protected $parent;

    /**
     * The children of the category
     *
     * @var ArrayCollection
     *
     * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Category", mappedBy="parent", cascade={"persist"})
     * @ORM\OrderBy({"left" = "ASC"})
     */
    protected $children;

    /**
     * The slug of the category
     *
     * @var string
     *
     * @ORM\Column(type="string", length=255, unique=true)
     *
     * @Gedmo\Slug(handlers={
     *      @Gedmo\SlugHandler(class="Gedmo\Sluggable\Handler\TreeSlugHandler", options={
     *          @Gedmo\SlugHandlerOption(name="parentRelationField", value="parent"),
     *          @Gedmo\SlugHandlerOption(name="separator", value="/")
     *      })
     * }, fields={"title"})
     */
    protected $slug;



    /**
     * Constructor
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->children = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    /**
     * Get the ID of the category
     *
     * @return integer
     */
    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    /**
     * Set the title of the category
     *
     * @param string $title
     *
     * @return $this
     */
    public function setTitle($title)
    {
        $this->title = $title;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get the title of the category
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getTitle()
    {
        return $this->title;
    }

    /**
     * Set the description of the category
     *
     * @param string $description
     *
     * @return $this
     */
    public function setDescription($description)
    {
        $this->description = $description;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get the description of the category
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getDescription()
    {
        return $this->description;
    }

    /**
     * Set the parent of the category
     *
     * @param Category $parent
     *
     * @return $this
     */
    public function setParent(Category $parent = null)
    {
        $this->parent = $parent;

        if (null !== $parent) {
            $parent->addChild($this);
        }

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get the parent of the category
     *
     * @return Category
     */
    public function getParent()
    {
        return $this->parent;
    }

    /**
     * Add a child to the category
     *
     * @param Category $child
     *
     * @return $this
     */
    public function addChild(Category $child = null)
    {
        if (!$this->children->contains($child)) {
            $this->children->add($child);
            $child->setParent($this);
        }

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get the children of the category
     *
     * @return ArrayCollection
     */
    public function getChildren()
    {
        return $this->children;
    }

    /**
     * Set the slug of the category
     *
     * @param string $slug
     *
     * @return $this
     */
    public function setSlug($slug)
    {
        $this->slug = $slug;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get the slug of the category
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getSlug()
    {
        return $this->slug;
    }



    /** Magic Methods */

    /**
     * Return a string representation of the category
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function __toString()
    {
        return $this->getTitle();
    }
}

Given a category with a title of Bands and a sub-category with a title of Rock, the latter category, on creation, has a slug of bands/rock. This works as expected.

When I add the slug field to a form, however, when I edit the entity, I initially get bands/rock added to the form field. If I change this to bands/rock-and-roll and submit the form, the slug gets updated to bands/bands-rock-and-roll and not bands/rock-and-roll as I'd expect.

If I edit the category and set the slug field to rock-and-roll, then submit the form, the slug gets updated to bands/rock-and-roll. I'd expect the slug to be rock-and-roll after update.

What do I need to do to fix this behaviour? I essentially want the slug to be auto-generated with the handler if it's not provided, but to be set to exactly what I provide if I do provide it.

Thanks

Answer 1

looking at the docs of the Gedmo Tree Doctrine extension and it's relative code, it's not a wrong behaviour because the slug is composed accordingly with the "TreeSlugHandler" method = parentFieldName/field-You-Have-Inserted (that happens every time you edit the slug).

If you need at the same moment of a slug for a specific category and of another that follows the category tree you can add another property (ex: cat_slug) with the simple annotation: @Gedmo\Slug(fields={"fieldYouWantToSlug"}).

Remember that every time (using the "TreeSlugHandler" method) you edit the slug (changing the precedent), every subcategory will be updated with the new slug.

I hope I was helpful