Question

I am having a problem with using an object as a prototype for some other objects.

The below code is expected to persist all instances of the object Container (visible in this code below is $module1 and $module2), however only the last one is persisted, and I assume it is due to the way I copy a prototype object.

Should I copy the prototype in some other way?

//Create module prototype
        $module = new Container();
        $module->setCompany($currentCompany);
        $module->setContainerType($typeModule);
        $module->setParent($entity);

        //Set the modules in use by this template (structure a bit ugly here, but makes it easier when dealing with the layout on other areas of the app)
        if ($size = $template->getModule1()) {
            $module1 = $module; //copy the prototype
            $module1->setName('Module1'); //Give a unique name
            $module1->setContainerSize($size); //Copy the size from the layoutTemplate
            $em->persist($module1); //Persist this module
            $layout->setModule1($module1); //Connect this container to become a module in the layout
        }

        if ($size = $template->getModule2()) {
            $module2 = $module; //copy the prototype
            $module2->setName('Module2'); //Give a unique name
            $module2->setContainerSize($size); //Copy the size from the layoutTemplate
            $em->persist($module2); //Persist this module
            $layout->setModule2($module2); //Connect this container to become a module in the layout
        }

Answer 1

You don’t really copy the object, you only create a new variable alias to the same object (they use the same underlying object). This would work with arrays, but not with objects.

You can use clone to create a (shallow) copy of an object:

$module1 = clone $module;

Keep in mind though that $module and $module1 will have the same objects referenced. I,e if ContainerType is an object, the $module and $module1 will reference the same instance of ContainerType, which may or may not be what you want.

You can read more about cloning in PHP5 here