Create entity with relation on a POST request with Api Platform

Question

I want to send a post request that creates an entity and also other entities from one-to-many relations. I have a bet_question, that can be related to many bet_choices and many bet_points, and I want to create a bet_question with some bet_choices and bet_points in the same request. I used serialization groups like written in the doc, but I still get this error : Nested documents for attribute "betPoints" are not allowed. Use IRIs instead.

Here is what I send (with accept: application/json in header) :

{
   "question":"Will team A win ?",
   "betPoints":[
      {
         "value":"100"
      },
      {
         "value":"200"
      }
   ],
   "betChoices":[
      {
         "name":"Yes",
         "odds":2
      },
      {
         "name":"No",
         "odds":2
      }
   ],
   "fixture":"/api/fixtures/23"
}

And here is my entities :

Truncated Entity BetQuestion

/**
 * @ApiResource(attributes={
 *         "normalizationContext"={"groups"={"bet:read"}},
 *         "denormalizationContext"={"groups"={"bet:write"}}
 *     })
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="App\Repository\BetQuestionRepository")
 */
class BetQuestion
{
    /**
     * @ORM\Id()
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue()
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @Groups({"bet:read"})
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
     * @Groups({"bet:read", "bet:write"})
     */
    private $question;

    /**
     * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="App\Entity\BetPoint", mappedBy="betQuestion", cascade={"persist"})
     * @Groups({"bet:read", "bet:write"})
     */
    private $betPoints;

    /**
     * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="App\Entity\BetChoice", mappedBy="betQuestion", cascade={"persist"})
     * @Groups({"bet:read", "bet:write"})
     */
    private $betChoices;

    /**
     * @ORM\OneToOne(targetEntity="App\Entity\Fixture", inversedBy="betQuestion", cascade={"persist", "remove"})
     * @Groups({"bet:read", "bet:write"})
     */
    private $fixture;

Truncated Entity BetPoint

/**
 * @ApiResource()
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="App\Repository\BetPointRepository")
 */
class BetPoint
{
    /**
     * @ORM\Id()
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue()
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @Groups({"bet:read"})
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @Groups({"bet:read", "bet:write"})
     */
    private $value;

    /**
     * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="App\Entity\BetQuestion", inversedBy="betPoints")
     * @ApiSubresource(maxDepth=1)
     */
    private $betQuestion;

Truncated Entity BetChoice

/**
 * @ApiResource()
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="App\Repository\BetChoiceRepository")
 */
class BetChoice
{
    /**
     * @ORM\Id()
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue()
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @Groups({"bet:read"})
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="string", length=255)
     * @Groups({"bet:read", "bet:write"})
     */
    private $name;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="boolean")
     * @Groups({"bet:read"})
     */
    private $value = false;

    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="float")
     * @Groups({"bet:read", "bet:write"})
     */
    private $odds;

    /**
     * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="App\Entity\BetQuestion", inversedBy="betChoices")
     * @Groups({"bet:write"})
     */
    private $betQuestion;

Can you help me find what I am doing wrong please ?

Answer 1

You have a syntax error in the annotation:

/**
 * @ApiResource(attributes={
 *     "normalizationContext"={"groups"={"bet:read"}},
 *     "denormalizationContext"={"groups"={"bet:write"}}
 * })
 */

It should be:

/**
 * @ApiResource(
 *     normalizationContext={"groups"={"bet:read"}},
 *     denormalizationContext={"groups"={"bet:write"}},
 * )
 */

Which is also equivalent to:

/**
 * @ApiResource(attributes={
 *     "normalization_context"={"groups"={"bet:read"}},
 *     "denormalization_context"={"groups"={"bet:write"}},
 * })
 */

Reference: https://api-platform.com/docs/core/serialization/#using-serialization-groups