Removing Associated Data

Overview

This guide explains with some examples on how to delete associated data or most likely how to delete the association to another entity.

Prerequisites

This example will be built upon the Plugin base guide, so having a look at it will come in handy.

Also, the same subject was already mentioned in our guide about Replacing associated data.

Deleting associated data

Since the method differs from each type of association, it will be split from here. Note, that deleting an association (as in: Removing the association without a replacement) is only possible if the association is not required.

E.g. you cannot just remove the taxId from a product, since the product always has to be associated to a tax entity.

Deleting ToOne associations

This section will cover both OneToOne as well as ManyToOne associations, since they're basically treated the same. In this example we'll assume that you've assigned a manufacturer to your product. The manufacturerId is not required and thus the association can be removed.

public function removeAssocData(Context $context): void
{
    $this->productRepository->update([
        [
            'id' => 'myProductId',
            'manufacturerId' => null
        ]
    ], $context);
}

We're simply setting the ID field of the respective association to null. Now this product won't have a manufacturer assigned anymore.

Note: If your product is e.g. inheriting from a parent product, the manufacturer will not be unset for the parent product as well.

Deleting ManyToMany associations

This section will only cover ManyToMany associations. If you're looking for OneToMany associations, head over to the next section. But for now, let's have a look at a ManyToMany example.

Assuming you want to un-assign a category from a product, this is how it's done.

public function removeAssocData(Context $context): void
{
    $this->productCategoryRepository->delete([
        [
            'productId' => 'myProductId',
            'categoryId' => 'myCategoryId'
        ]
    ], $context);
}

When using the delete method, you always need to provide the entities' primary keys in the data array. Usually, this is just one id field, but since we're dealing with a mapping entity here, it owns two primary keys. This piece of information can be found by looking into the respective entity definition. Have a look at the ProductCategoryDefinition that we're dealing with here. It owns two primary keys, productId and categoryId, and you need to provide both to precisely delete this association.

Deleting OneToMany associations

The OneToMany associations deserve an own section, since they come with a special use case in Shopware 6. They are sometimes used to create a ManyToMany association but with extra data in the mapping table, and sometimes they're just simple OneToMany associations.

You need to figure out which kind of OneToMany association you're facing here: A normal OneToMany association or a hidden ManyToMany association?

Let's start with the normal one. Usually, a OneToMany association is just the other side of a ManyToOne association, whose deletion was already explained in the section about deleting associated data.

Assume you're looking into the ProductManufacturerDefinition, which has a OneToMany association to the products. Deleting this kind of association was already explained in the section about ToOne associations. Instead of working with the repository of the ProductManufacturerDefinition, you would be working with the repository from the ProductDefinition to remove this association.

public function removeAssocData(Context $context): void
{
    $this->productRepository->update([
        [
            'id' => 'myProductId',
            'manufacturerId' => null
        ]
    ], $context);
}

Just set the manufacturerId to null and there we go - the OneToMany association was removed. It's the very same code example again.

Unfortunately, it's not always that simple. As explained above, sometimes OneToMany associations are hidden ManyToMany associations. To understand what we mean, have a look at the media field in the Product definition. Technically a product can have multiple medias, and a media can be assigned to multiple products, so this should have been a ManyToMany association, right? Yet, looking at the media field in the ProductDefinition, you can see that it's a OneToMany association. The second case, that we described earlier in this section, fits here: Technically a ManyToMany association, hidden by a OneToMany association for the reason mentioned above: There's more data needed for the mapping entity.

If this is the case, you have to treat it just like a ManyToMany association in terms of deleting it. Get the mapping definition's repository, product_media.repository in this example, and execute a delete on that repository. This time though, you don't have to use the productId and the mediaId to delete it, since this kind of definition has its own ID field. And that's the one you need to use.

So figure out its ID by using the known productId and mediaId and figure out the mapping entities' ID this way.

public function removeAssocData(Context $context): void
{
    $criteria = new Criteria();
    $criteria->addFilter(new EqualsFilter('productId', 'myProductId'));
    $criteria->addFilter(new EqualsFilter('mediaId', 'myMediaId'));

    $productMediaId = $this->productMediaRepository->searchIds($criteria, $context)->firstId();

    $this->productMediaRepository->delete([
        [
            'id' => $productMediaId
        ]
    ], $context);
}

By having a look at the ProductMediaDefinition, we know that it only has one primary key, which is id - and as always when using the delete method, this is all you need to provide in the data array.

This way the product will now lose the association to the media entity. Note: This will not delete the media entity itself, just the association between the product and the media entity.

More interesting topics

• Replacing associated data