I’m deserializing an entity from an XML feed. The entity already has an ID

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Asked: June 2, 20262026-06-02T22:11:04+00:00 2026-06-02T22:11:04+00:00

I’m deserializing an entity from an XML feed. The entity already has an ID

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I’m deserializing an entity from an XML feed. The entity already has an ID (Read from the XML).

I’m trying to merge the entity before persisting and flushing it (saving it into the database). I need to merge the entity because it may already exist in the database and if so I need it to update rather than fail validation.

Here’s my code:

<?php

// build the MgLeague from xml
$league = $this->serializer->deserialize(
    $xml, 
    'Acme\Website\Entity\MgLeague',
    'xml'
);

if ($league)
{
    // merge the league
    $league = $this->em->merge($league);

    // validate
    if (0 === count($this->validator->validate($league)))
    {
        $this->em->persist($league);
        $this->em->flush();
    }
}

And here’s the error I’m receiving:

PHP Fatal error:  Call to undefined method Doctrine\ORM\UnitOfWork::newInstance() in /Website/vendor/doctrine/lib/Doctrine/ORM/UnitOfWork.php on line 1457
PHP Stack trace:
PHP   1. {main}() /Website/app/console:0
PHP   2. Symfony\Component\Console\Application->run() /Website/app/console:22
PHP   3. Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Console\Application->doRun() /Website/vendor/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/Console/Application.php:118
PHP   4. Symfony\Component\Console\Application->doRun() /Website/vendor/symfony/src/Symfony/Bundle/FrameworkBundle/Console/Application.php:75
PHP   5. Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command->run() /Website/vendor/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/Console/Application.php:194
PHP   6. Mahango\WebServiceBundle\Command\InsertLeaguesCommand->execute() /Website/vendor/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/Console/Command/Command.php:224
PHP   7. Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager->merge() /Website/src/Mahango/WebServiceBundle/Command/InsertLeaguesCommand.php:131
PHP   8. Doctrine\ORM\UnitOfWork->merge() /Website/vendor/doctrine/lib/Doctrine/ORM/EntityManager.php:531
PHP   9. Doctrine\ORM\UnitOfWork->doMerge() /Website/vendor/doctrine/lib/Doctrine/ORM/UnitOfWork.php:1378

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Doctrine\ORM\UnitOfWork::newInstance() in /Website/vendor/doctrine/lib/Doctrine/ORM/UnitOfWork.php on line 1457

Call Stack:
    0.0003     632280   1. {main}() /Website/app/console:0
    0.0133    2936544   2. Symfony\Component\Console\Application->run() /Website/app/console:22
    0.0151    3192136   3. Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Console\Application->doRun() /Website/vendor/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/Console/Application.php:118
    0.0538    7941912   4. Symfony\Component\Console\Application->doRun() /Website/vendor/symfony/src/Symfony/Bundle/FrameworkBundle/Console/Application.php:75
    0.0552    7941912   5. Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command->run() /Website/vendor/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/Console/Application.php:194
    0.0816   13131288   6. Mahango\WebServiceBundle\Command\InsertLeaguesCommand->execute() /Website/vendor/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/Console/Command/Command.php:224
    0.4149   13519208   7. Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager->merge() /Website/src/Mahango/WebServiceBundle/Command/InsertLeaguesCommand.php:131
    0.4149   13519208   8. Doctrine\ORM\UnitOfWork->merge() /Website/vendor/doctrine/lib/Doctrine/ORM/EntityManager.php:531
    0.4149   13519424   9. Doctrine\ORM\UnitOfWork->doMerge() /Website/vendor/doctrine/lib/Doctrine/ORM/UnitOfWork.php:1378

It looks to me like a Doctrine bug.

I’m using Symfony2 (version 2.0.12) with Doctrine (version 2.1.6).