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So I have a UserRepository that contains the following code

namespace AppBundle\Repository;
use \Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;
class UserRepository extends EntityRepository
{
    public function findByRole($role)
    {
        $qb = $this->_em->createQueryBuilder();
        $qb->select('u')
            ->from($this->_entityName, 'u')
            ->where('u.roles LIKE :roles')
            ->setParameter('roles', '%"'.$role.'"%');

        return $qb->getQuery()->getResult();
    }
}

This seems to be working perfectly fine if my database is MySQL but if i change the database to PostgreSQL this query throws the following error

An exception occurred while executing 'SELECT p0_.id AS id_0, p0_.username AS username_1, p0_.password AS password_2, p0_.is_active AS is_active_3, p0_.roles AS roles_4, p0_.name AS name_5, p0_.street AS street_6, p0_.city AS city_7, p0_.state AS state_8, p0_.zip_code AS zip_code_9, p0_.phone_number AS phone_number_10, p0_.dob AS dob_11, p0_.company_name AS company_name_12, p0_.company_slug AS company_slug_13, p0_.company_logo AS company_logo_14, p0_.company_details AS company_details_15, p0_.stripe_customer_id AS stripe_customer_id_16, p0_.created_at AS created_at_17, p0_.updated_at AS updated_at_18 FROM px_user p0_ WHERE p0_.roles LIKE ?' with params ["%\"ROLE_EMPLOYER\"%"]:

SQLSTATE[42883]: Undefined function: 7 ERROR: operator does not exist: json ~~ unknown LINE 1: ...at AS updated_at_18 FROM px_user p0_ WHERE p0_.roles LIKE $1 ^ HINT: No operator matches the given name and argument type(s). You might need to add explicit type casts.

This is the first time I am working with PostgreSQL so I am not getting what the problem is. After playing around with it for a while if I change the generated query to by adding the following piece

WHERE 
  p0_.roles::text LIKE '%ROLE_EMPLOYER%'

Everything works fine. Note the ::text.

So now how can i add that to the query builder so it works with PostgreSQL as well.

Answers

I solved the problem by using JsonbBundle.

Following steps I took to fix it

$ composer require "boldtrn/jsonb-bundle

Updated the config.yml by adding the following in its respective place.

doctrine:
    dbal:
        types:
          jsonb: Boldtrn\JsonbBundle\Types\JsonbArrayType
        mapping_types:
          jsonb: jsonb
    orm:
        dql:
            string_functions:
                JSONB_AG:   Boldtrn\JsonbBundle\Query\JsonbAtGreater
                JSONB_HGG:  Boldtrn\JsonbBundle\Query\JsonbHashGreaterGreater
                JSONB_EX:   Boldtrn\JsonbBundle\Query\JsonbExistence

Changed the roles property to type jsonb

And inside the repository the following query worked

$query = $this->getEntityManager()->createQuery("SELECT u FROM AppBundle:User u WHERE JSONB_HGG(u.roles , '{}') LIKE '%EMPLOYER%' ");
$users = $query->getResult();
return $users;

The credit goes to Doctrine query postgres json (contains) json_array