Custom operation denormalize entity relationships - api-platform.com

Question

My Entity(MealSet) has a file association so I have created a custom operation to process the request. My custom operation(MealSetController::class) attempts to denormalize the entity and the returns it. However, because my entity has a relationship, the denormalization fails and throws an error Nested documents for attribute \u0022mealSetIncludes\u0022 are not allowed. Use IRIs instead..
How would one denormalize an entity that has relationships from within a custom operation?
// MealSet entity
namespace App\Entity;
use App\Entity\MealAudienceCategory;
use ApiPlatform\Core\Annotation\ApiResource;
use App\Controller\MealSetController;
use App\Repository\MealSetRepository;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection;
use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\Groups;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Validator\Constraints\UniqueEntity;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\File\File;
use Vich\UploaderBundle\Mapping\Annotation as Vich;
/**
* #ApiResource(
* itemOperations={
* "get",
* "put"={
* "method"="POST",
* "path" = "/meal-sets/{id}",
* "controller" = MealSetController::class,
* "deserialize" = false
* },
* collectionOperations = {
* "get",
* "post" = {
* "security"="is_granted('CREATE_MENUAUDIENCE')",
* "method"="POST",
* "controller" = MealSetController::class,
* "deserialize" = false,
* }
* }
*)
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass=MealSetRepository::class)
* #UniqueEntity(
* fields={"name", "mealAudienceCategory"},
* message="The Meal Set name {{ value }} is already in use."
*)
* #Vich\Uploadable
*/
class MealSet
{
/**
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=45)
* #Groups({
* "mealset:read",
* "mealset:write",
* "mealaudiencecategory:read",
*})
* #Assert\NotBlank
* #Assert\Length(
* min = 2,
* max = 45,
* minMessage = "Name must be at least {{ limit }} characters long",
* maxMessage = "Name cannot be longer than {{ limit }} characters",
* )
*/
private $name;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
* #Groups({
* "mealset:read",
* "mealset:write",
* "mealaudiencecategory:read",
*})
* #Assert\NotBlank
* #Assert\Length(
* min = 2,
* max = 255,
* minMessage = "Description must be at least {{ limit }} characters long",
* maxMessage = "Description cannot be longer than {{ limit }} characters",
* )
*/
private $description;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="boolean")
* #Groups({
* "mealset:read",
* "mealset:write",
* "mealaudiencecategory:read",
*})
* #Assert\Type(
* type="boolean",
* message="The value {{ value }} is not a valid {{ type }}."
* )
*/
private $published;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
* #Groups({
* "mealset:read",
* "mealset:write"
*})
* #Assert\Type(
* type="integer",
* message="The value {{ value }} is not a valid {{ type }}."
* )
*/
private $displayOrder;
/**
* #var MealAudienceCategory
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity=MealAudienceCategory::class, inversedBy="mealSets")
* #ORM\JoinColumn(nullable=false)
* #Groups({
* "mealset:read",
* "mealset:write"
*})
*/
private $mealAudienceCategory;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity=MealSetIncludes::class, mappedBy="mealSet", cascade={"persist", "remove"}, orphanRemoval=true)
* #Groups({
* "mealset:read",
* "mealset:write"
*})
*/
private $mealSetIncludes;
/**
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity=MealSetGroup::class, mappedBy="mealSet", orphanRemoval=true)
* #Groups({
* "mealset:read",
* "mealset:write"
*})
*/
private $mealSetGroups;
/**
* #Groups({
* "menuaudience:read",
*})
*/
public $contentUrl;
/**
* #Vich\UploadableField(mapping="media_object", fileNameProperty="filePath")
* #Groups({
* "menuaudience:write",
*})
*/
public $file = null;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=255, nullable=true)
*/
private $filePath;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="datetime_immutable")
*/
private $updatedAt;
public function __construct()
{
$this->mealSetSection = new ArrayCollection();
$this->mealSetIncludes = new ArrayCollection();
$this->mealSetGroups = new ArrayCollection();
$this->setUpdatedAt(new \DateTimeImmutable());
}
public function getId(): ?int
{
return $this->id;
}
public function getName(): ?string
{
return $this->name;
}
public function setName(string $name): self
{
$this->name = $name;
return $this;
}
public function getDescription(): ?string
{
return $this->description;
}
public function setDescription(string $description): self
{
$this->description = $description;
return $this;
}
public function getPublished(): ?bool
{
return $this->published;
}
public function setPublished(bool $published): self
{
$this->published = $published;
return $this;
}
public function getDisplayOrder(): ?int
{
return $this->displayOrder;
}
public function setDisplayOrder(int $displayOrder): self
{
$this->displayOrder = $displayOrder;
return $this;
}
public function getMealAudienceCategory(): ?MealAudienceCategory
{
return $this->mealAudienceCategory;
}
public function setMealAudienceCategory(?MealAudienceCategory $mealAudienceCategory): self
{
$this->mealAudienceCategory = $mealAudienceCategory;
return $this;
}
/**
* #return Collection|MealSetIncludes[]
* #Assert\Valid()
*/
public function getMealSetIncludes(): Collection
{
return $this->mealSetIncludes;
}
public function addMealSetInclude(MealSetIncludes $mealSetInclude): self
{
if (!$this->mealSetIncludes->contains($mealSetInclude)) {
$this->mealSetIncludes[] = $mealSetInclude;
$mealSetInclude->setMealSet($this);
}
return $this;
}
public function removeMealSetInclude(MealSetIncludes $mealSetInclude): self
{
if ($this->mealSetIncludes->contains($mealSetInclude)) {
$this->mealSetIncludes->removeElement($mealSetInclude);
// set the owning side to null (unless already changed)
if ($mealSetInclude->getMealSet() === $this) {
$mealSetInclude->setMealSet(null);
}
}
return $this;
}
/**
* #return Collection|MealSetGroup[]
*/
public function getMealSetGroups(): Collection
{
return $this->mealSetGroups;
}
public function addMealSetGroup(MealSetGroup $mealSetGroup): self
{
if (!$this->mealSetGroups->contains($mealSetGroup)) {
$this->mealSetGroups[] = $mealSetGroup;
$mealSetGroup->setMealSet($this);
}
return $this;
}
public function removeMealSetGroup(MealSetGroup $mealSetGroup): self
{
if ($this->mealSetGroups->removeElement($mealSetGroup)) {
// set the owning side to null (unless already changed)
if ($mealSetGroup->getMealSet() === $this) {
$mealSetGroup->setMealSet(null);
}
}
return $this;
}
public function getUpdatedAt(): ?\DateTimeImmutable
{
return $this->updatedAt;
}
public function setUpdatedAt(\DateTimeImmutable $updatedAt): self
{
$this->updatedAt = $updatedAt;
return $this;
}
public function getFilePath(): ?string
{
return $this->filePath;
}
public function getContentUrl(): ?string {
return $this->contentUrl;
}
public function setFilePath($filePath): self
{
$this->filePath = $filePath;
return $this;
}
}
class MealSetController extends AbstractController
{
public function __invoke($slug = '', RequestStack $requestStack, MealSetRepository $em): MealSet
{
/*
Determine if they are trying to edit an entity or create an entity.
If edit, find the entity and use that object.
*/
if($slug) {
$obj = $em->findOneBySlug($slug);
if(!$obj)
throw new BadRequestHttpException('Cannot find MealSet where SLUG ='.$slug);
} else {
$obj = new MealSet();
}
$serializer = $this->get("serializer");
$request = $requestStack->getCurrentRequest();
$data = array_filter($request->request->all(), function($x) { return ($x) ? true : false; }); //Grab the post data and filter out any empty strings.
$extractors = new PropertyInfoExtractor([], [new PhpDocExtractor(), new ReflectionExtractor()]);
(new ObjectNormalizer(null, null, null, $extractors))->denormalize($data, MenuAudience::class, 'json', [
AbstractNormalizer::OBJECT_TO_POPULATE => $obj,
AbstractObjectNormalizer::SKIP_NULL_VALUES => true,
ObjectNormalizer::DISABLE_TYPE_ENFORCEMENT => true
]);
$uploadedFile = $request->files->get('file');
if($uploadedFile)
$obj->setFile($uploadedFile);
return $obj;
}
}