[FIXED] Using Api Platform, automatically assign user to Object (OneToMany)

Issue

Here is my scenario:

I have an Article entity. Each Article has an owner (a User). A user can own many articles. The user can post an article over the API.

I want to have the user_id column for the article set automatically based on the Bearer token (I am using JWT auth).

I cannot find any documentation anywhere on how to do this. Can someone please help with how to achieve this?

Note: I am looking for solutions that would avoid having to use additional extensions (or controllers) in Symfony, if possible. I believe Api Platform should be able to achieve this using built-in technology, but I could be wrong.

Here are my entities:

User:

<?php

namespace App\Entity;

use ApiPlatform\Core\Annotation\ApiResource;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Validator\Constraints\UniqueEntity;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\UserInterface;

/**
 * @ApiResource()
 * @ORM\Table(name="users")
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="App\Repository\UserRepository")
 * @UniqueEntity(fields="email", message="Email already taken")
 */
class User implements UserInterface, \Serializable
{

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @var string $password
     *
     * @ORM\Column(type="string", length=64)
     * @Assert\NotBlank()
     */
    private $password;

    /**
     * @var string $plainPassword
     *
     * @Assert\NotBlank()
     * @Assert\Length(max=4096)
     */
    private $plainPassword;

    /**
     * @var string $email
     *
     * @ORM\Column(type="string", length=254, unique=true)
     * @Assert\NotBlank()
     * @Assert\Email()
     */
    private $email;

    /**
     * @var bool $isActive
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="is_active", type="boolean")
     */
    private $isActive;

    /**
     * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Article", mappedBy="user")
     */
    private $articles;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="array")
     */
    private $roles;

    public function __construct($email)
    {
        $this->isActive = true;
        $this->email = $email;
        $this->articles = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getUsername()
    {
        return $this->email;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getEmail()
    {
        return $this->email;
    }

    /**
     * @param string $email
     *
     * @return $this
     */
    public function setEmail($email)
    {
        $this->email = $email;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @return null|string
     */
    public function getSalt()
    {
        return null;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getPassword()
    {
        return $this->password;
    }

    /**
     * @param string $password
     *
     * @return $this
     */
    public function setPassword($password)
    {
        $this->password = $password;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @return array
     */
    public function getRoles()
    {
        return ['ROLE_USER'];
    }

    public function eraseCredentials()
    {
    }

    /** @see \Serializable::serialize() */
    public function serialize()
    {
        return serialize(array(
            $this->id,
            $this->email,
            $this->password,
        ));
    }

    /** @see \Serializable::unserialize()
     * @param $serialized
     */
    public function unserialize($serialized)
    {
        list (
            $this->id,
            $this->email,
            $this->password,
            ) = unserialize($serialized, array('allowed_classes' => false));
    }
}

Article

<?php

namespace App\Entity;

use ApiPlatform\Core\Annotation\ApiResource;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

/**
 * A User's article
 *
 * @ORM\Table(name="articles")
 * @ApiResource(
 *     attributes={"access_control"="is_granted('ROLE_USER')"},
 *     collectionOperations={
 *         "get",
 *         "post"={"access_control"="is_granted('ROLE_USER')"}
 *     },
 *     itemOperations={
 *         "get"={"access_control"="is_granted('ROLE_USER') and object.owner == user"}
 *     }
 * )
 * @ORM\Entity
 * @ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks()
 */
class Article
{

    /**
     * @var int $id
     *
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @var string $user
     *
     * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="User", inversedBy="articles")
     */
    private $user;

    /**
     * @var string $name
     *
     * @ORM\Column(type="text")
     * @Assert\NotBlank()
     */
    private $name;

    /**
     * @var string $location
     *
     * @ORM\Column(type="text")
     */
    private $location;

    /**
     * @var \DateTimeInterface $createdAt
     *
     * @ORM\Column(type="datetime_immutable")
     */
    private $createdAt;

    /**
     * @var \DateTimeInterface $updatedAt
     *
     * @ORM\Column(type="date_immutable", nullable=true)
     */
    private $updatedAt;

    /**
     * @ORM\PrePersist()
     */
    public function setCreatedAt()
    {
        $this->createdAt = new \DateTime();
    }

    /**
     * @ORM\PreUpdate()
     */
    public function setUpdatedAt()
    {
        $this->updatedAt = new \DateTime();
    }

    /**
     * @return int
     */
    public function getId(): int
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    /**
     * @param int $id
     */
    public function setId(int $id): void
    {
        $this->id = $id;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getUser(): string
    {
        return $this->user;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getName(): string
    {
        return $this->name;
    }

    /**
     * @param string $name
     */
    public function setName(string $name): void
    {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getLocation(): string
    {
        return $this->location;
    }

    /**
     * @param string $location
     */
    public function setLocation(string $location): void
    {
        $this->location = $location;
    }


}

Solution

This should be possible using an EventListener: https://api-platform.com/docs/core/events

With these you can hook into the internal process of ApiPlatform process without a new controller. Perfect fit for your usecase.

An implementation could look like this:

<?php
// api/src/EventSubscriber/AddOwnerToArticleSubscriber.php

namespace App\EventSubscriber;

use ApiPlatform\Core\EventListener\EventPriorities;
use App\Entity\Article;
use App\Entity\User;
use Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventSubscriberInterface;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Event\GetResponseForControllerResultEvent;
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\KernelEvents;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Authentication\Token\Storage\TokenStorageInterface;

final class AddOwnerToArticleSubscriber implements EventSubscriberInterface
{

    /**
     * @var TokenStorageInterface
     */
    private $tokenStorage;

    public function __construct(TokenStorageInterface $tokenStorage)
    {

        $this->tokenStorage = $tokenStorage;
    }

    public static function getSubscribedEvents()
    {
        return [
            KernelEvents::VIEW => ['attachOwner', EventPriorities::PRE_WRITE],
        ];
    }

    public function attachOwner(GetResponseForControllerResultEvent $event)
    {
        $article = $event->getControllerResult();
        $method = $event->getRequest()->getMethod();

        if (!$article instanceof Article || Request::METHOD_POST !== $method) {

            // Only handle Article entities (Event is called on any Api entity)
            return;
        }

        // maybe these extra null checks are not even needed
        $token = $this->tokenStorage->getToken();
        if (!$token) {
            return;
        }

        $owner = $token->getUser();
        if (!$owner instanceof User) {
            return;
        }


        // Attach the user to the not yet persisted Article
        $article->setUser($owner);

    }
}

Answered By - mblaettermann