Model data not updated on second save()

[svdigital-development]

We are upgrading our application from Phalcon 3.4.5 to Phalcon 4.1.2 and from PHP 7.3 to PHP 7.4.

Everything work fine except for one serious problem.

We have a model "Request" which uses protected properties and public getters and setters and with Exception on save() failure. There is a Controller which updates the model twice on an already existing record, using another method of the Controller class inside a transaction.

Code:

$db = $this->di->get( 'db' ); // using ::get() or ::getShared() doesn't change; the DB connection service is shared (we use ::setShared() on the DI)

$db->begin();

try {
	/* Just returns an instance of RequestStatus model (existing record, of course) */
	$newStatus = self::calculateNewStatus( $request );

	/* FIRST SAVE(): SUCCESSFULL */
	$this->evaluateApply( $request );
	
	/* Then, we assign a NEW value to "RequestStatusId" */
	$request->setRequestStatusId( $newStatus->getId() );
	
	/* SECON SAVE(): RETURNS TRUE BUT "RequestStatusId" IS NOT UPDATED! */
	$request->save();

	$db->commit();
	
} catch ( \Throwable $ex ) {
	$db->rollback();
	throw $ex;
}

// ...

private function evaluateApply( Request $request ) {
	$request->setUserAssignedId( $this->getCurrentUserId() );
	$request->save();
}

As you can see the $request record is updated (saved) twice: once inside another method which accepts the model instance as parameter and then inside the main method.

This code has always worked great.

PROBLEM

After the second $request->save() the instance of $request contains:

• The NEW UserAssignedId (first save)
• The OLD RequestStatusId (second save)

Dirty state is alway "TRANSIENT" on all stages.

Please note that we tried var_dump() the model data before and after every statement. The RequestStatusId value actually changes. It is correct until the beginning of the save() method (we extended the save() method just to var_dump() the value of the field before calling return parent::save()).

The value is the NEW one until before return parent::save(). Then the value changes back to the old one already inside the first model events: beforeValidation(), afterValidationOnUpdate(), beforeSave(), afterSave().

The only way to make the model perform the correct second update is to do this:

	/* See below for this method */
	$this->evaluateApply( $request );
	
	$request->refresh();
	
	$request->setRequestStatusId( $newStatus->getId() );

I mean, we must refresh() the model before performing the subsequent assignment. This is obviously unacceptable because we have plenty of situations of this kind in our application. And it is unacceptable because we're working with objects...

Please, can you help us?

Thank you

[Jeckerson]

Hello, could you also provide example your setters: setRequestStatusId() and setUserAssignedId()?

[Jeckerson]

With mine example I can't simulate your problem:

// Controller

protected function update($model)
{
    $model->setColumn1('first');
    $model->save();
}

public function indexAction()
{
    $this->db->begin();
    $model = TableModel::findFirst(1);
    $this->update($model);

    $model->setColumn2('second');
    $model->save();
    $this->db->commit();
}

// Model

protected ?string $column1 = null;
protected ?string $column2 = null;

public function setColumn1($val)
{
    $this->column1 = $val;
}

public function setColumn2($val)
{
    $this->column2 = $val;
}

[svdigital-development]

Hello,
yes but they are very simple. And please note that the above code is unchanged since years, I mean it is working fine on production environment with php 7.3 and Phalcon 3.

public function setRequestStatusId( int $statusId ): Request {
	$this->RequestStatusId = $statusId;
	
	return $this;
}


public function setUserAssignedId( int $userId ): Request {
	$this->UserAssignedId= $userId;
	
	return $this;
}

Thank you

[svdigital-development]

Ok thanks. I see you can't reproduce the issue, but why is this happening just upgrading to Phalcon 4 without any change to our code?

[Jeckerson]

Could you contact me in our Discord? - https://phalcon.io/discord

[svdigital-development]

It seems like Phalcon ORM is using the previous "version" of the object when performing the second save(), just when it enters the "Zephir" method save() (https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon/blob/master/phalcon/Mvc/Model.zep#L2456).

I extended the save() method inside the Model class, just to print data for debug purposes and then returning the parent's save().

Results of the var_dump() just before return parent::save(), inside the extended save() in the Model:

• The value of "UserAssignedId" is the NEW one (just saved before)
• The value of "RequestStatusId" is the NEW one (both using property or getter method)
• There is ONE "changedField()": "RequestStatusId"
• The snapshot value of "RequestStatusId" is the previous one

Making the same var_dump()s at the beginning of beforeValidation() or beforeValidationOnUpdate() inside the Model class tell us that:

• The value of "UserAssignedId" is the NEW one (just saved before)
• The value of "RequestStatusId" is the OLD one (both using property or getter method)
• There is NO "changedField()"s
• The snapshot value of "RequestStatusId" is the previous one

[svdigital-development]

I found what causes the problem. However, I still did not understand why it happens and how to solve it.

Request model contains this code inside initialize():

$this->belongsTo( 'RequestStatusId', RequestStatus::class, 'Id', [
	'alias' => 'RequestStatus',
	'reusable' => false,
] );

Let's see the code in the first message of the thread (#15625 (comment)).

That code is 100% working, except for the first method invocation:

	/* Just returns an instance of RequestStatus model (existing record, of course) */
	$newStatus = self::calculateNewStatus( $request );

Actually, self::calculateNewStatus( $request ) is doing this:

return StatusSet::calculateStatus( $request->getRequestStatus()->getNewStatusCode() );

The point is that doing this:

$request->getRequestStatus();

just before doing this (see the code in the first message):

$request->setRequestStatusId( $newStatus->getId() );
$request->save();

Causes the problem that $request->RequestStatusId; is still the old one.

In the code above I can reproduce the problem (1) or I can correctly save the record (2):

(1):

var_dump( $request->getRequestStatusId() ); // returns "111"

/* Make the ORM perform the foreign key query */
$request->getRequestStatus();

/* This method saves $request (another field, not "RequestStatusId"): successfull */
$this->evaluateApply( $request );

$request->setRequestStatusId( 222 );

$request->save();

var_dump( $request->getRequestStatusId() ); // returns "111"

(2):

var_dump( $request->getRequestStatusId() ); // returns "111"

/* DON'T perform the foreign key query */
/*** $request->getRequestStatus; ***/

/* This method saves $request (another field, not "RequestStatusId"): successfull */
$this->evaluateApply( $request );

$request->setRequestStatusId( 222 );

$request->save();

var_dump( $request->getRequestStatusId() ); // returns "222"

[wurst-hans]

I didn't look into this forum for a long time, but I've faced exactly the same problem long ago. Great, that you've filed an issue that is going to be resolved in Phalcon v5. But I'm still using Phalcon v4, because upgrading would be much effort for now. So, if anyone stumbled across this problem, here is, how I solved this in v4.

Instead of assigning relation the way you did it using $request->setRequestStatusId($newStatus->getId()); (which is the preferred method for me too), I had to assign whole entity to virtual relation property, like $request->RequestStatus = $newStatus;. This will successfully store the new relation.

[svdigital-development]

I created an issue for this: #15649

[svdigital-development]

To reproduce

#15649 (comment)