Cannot deserialize array objects on retreival of entity

Question

My object array is not deserializing when loading the entity from the database.

I have a non-entity object named NetworkAddress. Then in my Foo entity, I have an array of these network addresses.

The network addresses are being saved as serialized PHP in the database, but when I load the object, the data for the network addresses aren't being added.

/**
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="App\Repository\FooRepository")
 */
class Foo implements \Serializable
{
    ...

    /**
     * @var NetworkAddress[]
     * @Groups({"main", "initialized"})
     * @ORM\Column(type="array")
     */
    private array $addresses;
    ...

So when I load my $foo object, $foo->getAddresses() returns an array of empty NetworkAddresses, even though the raw database values is this:

a:1:{i:0;C:22:"App\DTO\NetworkAddress":41:{a:2:{i:0;s:9:"127.0.0.1";i:1;s:4:"5000";}}}

I'm using a basic ->findOneBy() command on my repo to retrieve the object.

Serializing seems to work, but is there something special for deserializing an object stored as an array?

Here's my NetworkAddress class, w/o the getters/setters

class NetworkAddress implements \Serializable
{
    /**
     * @Groups({"main", "initialized"})
     * @Assert\Regex(
     *     pattern="/^[0-9A-z\.-]+$/",
     *     match=true,
     *     message="Invalid host format."
     * )
     */
    private string $host = 'localhost';

    /**
     * Intentionally left untyped so we can accept int or string for port number.
     *
     * @Groups({"main", "initialized"})
     * @Assert\NotBlank(message = "Port should not be empty.")
     * @Assert\Range(min="1", max="65535", invalidMessage="Invalid port.")
     */
    private $port;

Answer 1

You can check the following, associate to deserialization problem on array of objects, and "safe php serialization" to fix up the vulnerability issue on php serialization.

class Foo implements \Serializable
{
    //...

    protected $addresses;
    //...

    public function __construct($addresses = null) {
        if (!is_null($addresses)) {
        {
            $this->addresses = $addresses;
        }
    }

    /* serialize network addresses */
    public function serialize(): string {

        /* sanitize for any recursion */
        if ($class = $this->checkRecursion()) {
            throw new \Exception("Recursion detected: '$class'");
        }
        return serialize($this->addresses);
    }

    /* deserialize network addresses */
    public function unserialize($serialized): void {
        $this->addresses = unserialize($serialized);

        /* sanitize for any recursion */
        if ($class = $this->checkRecursion()) {
            throw new \Exception("Recursion detected: '$class'");
        }
    }

    /* check recursion function */
    protected function checkRecursion() {
        $class = print_r($this, true);
        if (preg_match('/[^\=\>]+(?=\*RECURSION\*)/i', $class, $matches)) {
            return trim($matches[0]);
        }
        return false;
    }
}

Class NetworkAddress:

class NetworkAddress implements \Serializable
{
    protected $netAddress ;

    public function __construct($netAddress = ['host' => '127.0.0.7', 'port' => 7007]) {
        if (!is_null($netAddress)) {
            $this->netAddress = $netAddress;
        }
    }

    /* get class property by name
        eg. $net->__get('netAddress');
     */
    public function __get($name) {
        return $this->$name;
    }

    /* set class property from name
        eg. $net->__set('netAddress', ['host' => 'localhost', 'port' => '8080']);
     */
    public function __set($name, $value) {
        $this->$name = $value;
    }

    /* safe serialize */
    public function serialize(): string {

        /* sanitize for any recursion */
        if ($class = $this->checkRecursion()) {
            throw new \Exception("Recursion detected: '$class'");
        }
        return serialize($this->netAddresses);
    }

    /* safe unserialize */
    public function unserialize($serialized): void {
        $this->netAddresses = unserialize($serialized);

        /* sanitize for any recursion */
        if ($class = $this->checkRecursion()) {
            throw new \Exception("Recursion detected: '$class'");
        }
    }

    /* check recursion function */
    protected function checkRecursion() {
        $class = print_r($this, true);
        if (preg_match('/[^\=\>]+(?=\*RECURSION\*)/i', $class, $matches)) {
            return trim($matches[0]);
        }
        return false;
    }
}

Calls example:

/* create new network adresses */
$addresses = [new NetworkAddress(['host' => 'localhost', 'port' => 8080]), new NetworkAddress(['host' => 'example.com', 'port' => 80])];

/* create new foo */
$foo1 = new Foo($addresses);

/* serialize foo object */
$serialized = serialize($foo1);

/* unserialized foo object */
$foo2 = unserialize($serialized);

Hope this helps.