saveElement not updating entry?

[heymarkreeves]

Description

I've been using the following code in a plugin on a few sites to create/update entries from a news feed.

I'm finding that after the entries have first been created, they're not getting updated. I'm seeing multiple records for each entry in the entries table. If I edit the entry in the control panel, deleting the link field value, for example, save that, and then rerun the loop, I don't see link value set in that field again. I see a new entry record in the database, but I don't see a new entry in the control panel.

I had set up the section with revisions enabled, and I could see revisions were being created with the updated value, but the Current version didn't have it. I disabled revisions, deleted all the entries via the control panel, and ran the loop again. Same issue.

Per the docs, saveElement should just save the entry with the updated content, right?

$result = Entry::find()->section('pressReleases')
            ->where([
                'field_prNasdaqId' => $pressReleaseId
            ])->one();
if (!isset($result)) {
    /*
    ** Create new Craft entry
    */
    $postJson = json_decode(file_get_contents($pressRelease->body[0]->link->url));

    $entry = new Entry();
    $entry->sectionId = 23;
    $entry->typeId = 29;
    $entry->authorId = 5985;
    $entry->title = $title;
    $entry->prNasdaqId = $pressReleaseId;
    $entry->prNasdaqLink = (string)$pressRelease->body[0]->link->url;
    $entry->postDate = new \DateTime($pressRelease->releaseDate->dateUTC.'+00:00');
    $entry->prNasdaqLastUpdated = new \DateTime($pressRelease->lastUpdatedUTC.'+00:00');
    if(Craft::$app->elements->saveElement($entry)) {
        // echo 'Successfully created new entry<br />';
    } else {
        throw new \Exception("Couldn't create new entry: " . print_r($entry->getErrors(), true));
    }
}
else {
    /*
    ** Update existing Craft entry
    */
    $postJson = json_decode(file_get_contents($pressRelease->body[0]->link->url));
    $result->title = $title;
    $result->prNasdaqId = $pressReleaseId;
    $result->prNasdaqLink = (string)$pressRelease->body[0]->link->url;
    $result->postDate = new \DateTime($pressRelease->releaseDate->dateUTC.'+00:00');
    $result->prNasdaqLastUpdated = new \DateTime($pressRelease->lastUpdatedUTC.'+00:00');
    if(Craft::$app->elements->saveElement($result)) {
        echo 'Successfully saved entry<br />';
    } else {
        throw new \Exception("Couldn't save entry: " . print_r($result->getErrors(), true));
    }
}

Additional info

• Craft version: 3.4.13
• PHP version:
• Database driver & version: MySQL
• Plugins & versions:

[heymarkreeves]

Updated at displays the time the entry was updated via the loop, but the field doesn't get the new value.

[heymarkreeves]

OK, this works correctly, and I understand why:

$result->title = $title;
$result->postDate = new \DateTime($pressRelease->releaseDate->dateUTC.'+00:00');
$result->setFieldValues([
    'prNasdaqId' => $pressReleaseId,
    'prNasdaqLink' => (string)$pressRelease->link->hostedUrl,
    'prNasdaqLastUpdated' => new \DateTime($pressRelease->lastUpdatedUTC.'+00:00')
]);
if(Craft::$app->elements->saveElement($result)) {
    echo 'Successfully saved entry<br />';
} else {
    throw new \Exception("Couldn't save entry: " . print_r($result->getErrors(), true));
}

And it does not add records to the entries table.

Which leaves one question: What's up with all those other entries that I don't see in the Control Panel, and is there a way to safely clean them out? Are they joined to other tables?

I have 64 PR entries and the following query now returns 516 records:

Select count(*) from craft_entries
where sectionId = 23

Update
And I'm now seeing that the reason that wasn't working here where it worked on a different project is due to the 3.4 changes.

And the database records aren't an issue, because that was only in my dev database where I was out of synch with what's supported.

[brandonkelly]

Yep, the original way you were doing it would only have worked so long as you didn’t access those same field values before setting the new ones. So now it fails consistently.