Symfony2 forms - No Form Builder - forms

Question

new to Symfony and trying to understand something. I have index.twig.html and in it, I have a form
<form action="{{ path('SpecialAlertBundle_add') }}" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" class="addAlertForm">
<textarea class="addMargin" id="na_command" name="na_command" rows="3" cols="50" placeholder="A20APRLONLAX"></textarea>
<button type="button" class="btn btn-default" id="submit_alert" name="submit_alert">Submit</button>
{{ name }}
</form>
I wont add all the html, but its a normal form, not using Form Builder.
I have a route set up
SpecialAlertBundle_add:
pattern: /
defaults: { _controller: SpecialAlertBundle:Alert:add }
requirements:
_method: GET|POST
So that route displays my form ok when I go to localhost:8000. It also states which controller to use. As for the controller, I have
class AlertController extends Controller
{
public function addAction()
{
$request = $this->get('request_stack')->getCurrentRequest();
if ($request->request->has('submit_alert')) {
$name = $request->request->get('na_command');
} else {
$name = 'Not submitted yet';
}
return $this->render('SpecialAlertBundle:Page:index.html.twig', array(
'name' => $name
));
}
}
The first thing I want to clear up is that return in the controller. Is this the view I want it to render AFTER the form has been submitted?
Second thing is, at the moment, The {{name}} in the template is always displaying Not submitted yet. Even when I submit the form with data, nothing seems to happen. It seems that the button is doing nothing. Even when I look in the debug console, I see no request being made.
So I was hoping someone could advise me on what I am doing wrong here?
Thanks

Answer 1

First of all why don't you use Request directly in controller instead of request_stack? Request stack is mostly for injecting it to service (and not to inject request to the service).
So, you can do something like this:
public function addAction(Request $request)
{}
Then I'd suggest you to separate get request and post request. Just define two different routes.
For example:
SpecialAlertBundle_add:
pattern: /
defaults: { _controller: SpecialAlertBundle:Alert:add }
requirements:
_method: GET
SpecialAlertBundle_create:
pattern: /
defaults: { _controller: SpecialAlertBundle:Alert:create }
requirements:
_method: POST
After this you will have to change your form action value: set it to 'SpecialAlertBundle_create'
And it will be cleaner which one is now. After that you just don't need the checking on existence of 'submit_alert' property in request. You can assign the value of 'na_command' field to the $name:
$name = $request->get('na_command');