Reusable form choices in symfony2 forms - forms

Question

I have the following code that's working... but I think it can be done better.
(Description below).
Class Address
{
protected province;
public function getProvince()...
}
class AddressType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
...
$build->add(Province, new ProvinceType());
...
}
}
class ProvinceType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$provinceList = array(... //very long list
...
$build->add(Province, 'choice', array(
'choices' => $provinceList;
));
public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
{
$resolver->setDefaults(array(
'data_class' => 'Acme\Bundle\Entity\Address'
));
}
}
class PersonType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$Province = array(... //very long list
...
$build->add('Address', new AddressType());
$build->add('FromProvince', new AddressType());
}
}
I have two problems with the code above:
Using this in twig PersonType form I have to do form_widget(person.Address.ProvinceType.ProvinceType) to use it. This just looks so wrong.
To validate the province I have to go one method deeper than I should have to.
In the end I just want to be able to validate fields that make sense such as:
Acme\Bundle\Entity\Person:
property:
provinceBorn:
- NotBlank: ~ //Wish to reuse province list here for straight-forward validation.
Address:
Valid: ~
Acme\Bundle\Entity\Address:
property:
province:
- NotBlank: ~ //As well as here.

Answer 1

To shorten the path to your ProvinceType, you should maybe define it as a base widget that would extend Symfony's choice type (see the doc on this). The best you'd get here would be something like {{ form_widget(person.address.province) }}.
To make choices reusable, it would be smart to extract your ProvinceType into a service (see Symfony's doc on how to do this) and pass the list of provinces as a parameter into the ProvinceType's __construct method (that would be defined in your bundle's services.yml). That way you would be able to extract your provinces into an external storage.
On validation, keep in mind that the YAML you've supplied here has mostly nothing to do with Form component, it's about your entity. So, duplicating NotBlank constraints actually makes sense, because you're not linking Person's provinceBorn property to an Address entity, you're saving a separate field.
Though, if you define a custom field type, you can make it required by default by moving the constraint into the Type you extracted to a service. Such constraint can be defined like this:
<?php
class ProvinceChoiceType extends AbstractType
{
public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
{
$resolver->setDefaults([
'constraints' => [
new NotBlank(['message' => 'Title is required']),
],
]);
}
...

Answer 2

I have done the something similar in this way (I'll use your example):
Class Address
{
protected province;
public function getProvince()...
}
class AddressType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$provinceList = array(... //very long list
...
$build->add('province', 'choice', array(
'choices' => $provinceList, 'empty_value' => null, 'required' => true,
));
...
}
}
class PersonType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$Province = array(... //very long list
...
$build->add('address', new AddressType());
$build->add('fromProvince', new AddressType());
}
}
And you send the data:
...
$form = $this->createForm(new PersonType(), $entity);
return array(
'form' => $editForm->createView(),
);
And use this in Twig as below:
{{ form_widget(form.address.province) }}
Finally, I think your validation are correct, but if you need something more specific, you could use the getters method as in the Symfony documentation is specified, in the validation section http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/validation.html#getters

Answer 3

Extended answer from before with explanations.
Inheriting form
http://symfony.com/doc/current/cookbook/form/inherit_data_option.html
Code
With your code it should look something like this
class AddressType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
...
$build->add(Province, new ProvinceType(), [
'inherit_data' => true
// this is an alterrnative for having it bellow inside configure options
// use one or another, what suit you better
]);
...
}
public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
{
$resolver->setDefaults([
'inherit_data' => true
]);
}
// in sf > 2.7 use public function configureOptions(OptionsResolver $resolver)
}
class ProvinceType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$provinceList = array(... //very long list
...
$build->add(Province, 'choice', array(
'choices' => $provinceList;
));
public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
{
$resolver->setDefaults(array(
'data_class' => 'Acme\Bundle\Entity\Address',
'inherit_data' => true
));
}
}
class PersonType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$Province = array(... //very long list
...
$build->add('Address', new AddressType());
$build->add('FromProvince', new AddressType());
}
}
This you addressType inherits fields from provinceType, and PersonType inherits from both addressType (including its inherited fields from provinceType).
Template
So it should be possible to do this inside template
{{ form_row(form.Province)}}
Validation
The best way would be to so validation constrains on your relations with the Valid constrain.
This will force the validations on the children also
http://symfony.com/doc/current/reference/constraints/Valid.html
The other option is setting cascade_validation on the form, but this wont forward your validation groups if any.
Either way, you would then need define validation only on each entity once.