blog.barros.ws » form http://blog.barros.ws web development tips Sun, 06 Jun 2010 00:34:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Using embedFormForEach in Symfony, Part II http://blog.barros.ws/2009/01/01/using-embedformforeach-in-symfony-part-ii/ http://blog.barros.ws/2009/01/01/using-embedformforeach-in-symfony-part-ii/#comments Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:58:18 +0000 Carlos Barros http://blog.barros.ws/?p=106 In my last post I talked about embedFormForEach method, that will embed a form inside another N times, and in the end of that article, I promised a new post on this subject to show how to use it to dynamically add/remove/sort cars, and here it is. As usual, I put live an example here (I integrated this new form on the old city picker form). In this example, when you create (or edit) an user, you will see a new control called Cars, and a green plus icon. If you click that icon, it will add a new “car form” into the user form. You can add as many cars as you want. Each new form has a set of controls that can be used to sort and remove cars from the form. Let’s take a look on how it all works.

Before we start, as this example is integrated into previous city picker system, I recommend that you read it before, and also the previous article on embedFormForEach.

Ok, let’s start with database model:

config/schema.yml:

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  cp_users:
    _attributes:     { phpName: User, idMethod: native }
    id:              ~
    name:            { type: varchar(100), required: true }
    country_id:      { type: integer, required: true, foreignTable: cp_countries, foreignReference: id }
    state_id:        { type: integer, required: true, foreignTable: cp_states, foreignReference: id }
    city_id:         { type: integer, required: true, foreignTable: cp_cities, foreignReference: id }
    cars:            { type: longvarchar }
    created_at:      ~
    updated_at:      ~

Only thing I added here was at line 8, a new column where we’ll store cars information. Notice that it’s a single column of longvarchar type, and we’ll save car information as a serialized array. As we’re going to store car information as a serialized array, we need to overwrite getCars and setCars methods to make it do the conversion for us:

lib/model/User.class.php:

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	public function setCars($cars,$raw=false)
	{
		if(!$raw) $cars = array_values($cars);
 
		parent::setCars(serialize($cars));
	}
 
	public function getCars()
	{
		return @unserialize(parent::getCars());
	}
 
	public function getNumberOfCars()
	{
		$cars = $this->getCars();
 
		$ncars = 0;
		if(is_array($cars))
		{
			foreach($cars as $k=>$v)
				$ncars = max($ncars,intval($k)+1);
		}
 
		return $ncars;
	}

setCars will receive an array as parameter and serialize it, and getCars will do the opposite, get a string from database and unserialize it into an array. Notice that setCars expects another parameter, called $raw. If this value is false (default), it will rebuild the array keys, to ensure a sequential value. But as you will see later on, there will be one place that it’s not desired, so we need to instruct setCars to not rebuild keys, passing $raw = true. getNumberOfCars, as the name suggests, returns the number of cars the object has. You might wonder why didn’t I just use return count($this->getCars()) for this… This method won’t return the actual number of cars, but the highest key + 1 in the array, and the reason for this will be explained later on.

To receive input from the user, we’re gonna use the CarForm we created in previous article. Notice that it’s exactly the same form:

lib/form/CarForm.class.php:

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class CarForm extends sfForm
{
	public function configure()
	{
		$this->setWidgets(array(
			'make'		=> new sfWidgetFormSelect(array('choices'=>array('ferrari'=>'Ferrari','bmw'=>'BMW','porsche'=>'Porsche'))),
			'model'		=> new sfWidgetFormInput(),
		));
 
		$this->setValidators(array(
			'make'		=> new sfValidatorChoice(array('required'=>true,'choices'=>array('ferrari','bmw','porsche'))),
			'model'		=> new sfValidatorString(array('required'=>true),array('required'=>'Please enter model')),
		));
 
		$this->widgetSchema->setLabels(array(
			'make'		=> 'Make:',
			'model'		=> 'Model:',
		));
 
		$this->widgetSchema->setNameFormat('%s');
    	$this->errorSchema = new sfValidatorErrorSchema($this->validatorSchema);
	}	
}

Again, if you look into previous example, you’ll find another form called CarsForm (plural), that was responsible to get the number of cars user wanted to input. This form won’t be used in this new example, rather, we’ll embed CarForm inside CPUserForm:

lib/form/CPUserForm.class.php:

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class CPUserForm extends sfFormPropel
{
  private $ncars = 0;
 
  public function __construct($object = null, $options = array(), $CSRFSecret = null)
  {
  	parent::__construct($object,$options,$CSRFSecret);
 
  	// calculate number of cars
  	$this->ncars = $object->getNumberOfCars();
 
  	// embed cars form
  	if($this->ncars)
  	{
  		$cars_form  = new CarForm();
		$this->embedFormForEach('cars',$cars_form,$this->ncars,'%content%','%content%');
 
  		// set default
  		$this->setDefault('cars',$object->getCars());
  	}
  	else $this->embedForm("cars",new sfForm(),"%content%");  	
  }
 
  public function configure()
  {
  	// build state criteria
  	$stateC = new Criteria();
  	$stateC->add(StatePeer::COUNTRY_ID,$this->getObject()->getCountryId());
 
  	// build city criteria
   	$cityC = new Criteria();
  	$cityC->add(CityPeer::STATE_ID,$this->getObject()->getStateId());
 
    $this->setWidgets(array(
      'name'   			=> new sfWidgetFormInput(),
      'country_id'		=> new sfWidgetFormPropelSelect(array('model'=>'Country','add_empty'=>'-- Country --','order_by'=>array('Name','asc'))),
      'state_id'		=> new sfWidgetFormPropelSelect(array('model'=>'State','add_empty'=>'-- State/Province --','order_by'=>array('Name','asc'),'criteria'=>$stateC)),
      'city_id'			=> new sfWidgetFormPropelSelect(array('model'=>'City','add_empty'=>'-- City --','order_by'=>array('Name','asc'),'criteria'=>$cityC)),
      'id'				=> new sfWidgetFormInputHidden(),
    ));
 
    $this->setValidators(array(
    	'name'			=> new sfValidatorString(
    							array(
    								'trim'		=> true,
    								'required'	=> true,
    							),array(
    								'required'	=> '- Please enter name',
    							)
    					),
    	'country_id'	=> new sfValidatorPropelChoice(
    							array(
    								'model'		=> 'Country',
    								'column'	=> 'id',
    							),array(
    								'required'	=> '- Please choose country',
    								'invalid'	=> '- Invalid country',
    							)
    					),
    	'state_id'		=> new sfValidatorPropelChoice(
    							array(
    								'model'		=> 'State',
    								'column'	=> 'id',
    								'criteria'	=> clone $stateC,
    							),array(
    								'required'	=> '- Please choose state',
    								'invalid'	=> '- Invalid state',
    							)
    					),
    	'city_id'		=> new sfValidatorPropelChoice(
    							array(
    								'model'		=> 'City',
    								'column'	=> 'id',
    								'criteria'	=> clone $cityC,
    							),array(
    								'required'	=> '- Please choose city',
    								'invalid'	=> '- Invalid city',
    							)
    					),
    	'id'			=> new sfValidatorNumber(array('required'=>false)),
    ));
 
	$this->widgetSchema->setLabels(array(
		'name'	=> 'Name',
	));
 
	$this->widgetSchema->setNameFormat('user[%s]');
    $this->errorSchema = new sfValidatorErrorSchema($this->validatorSchema);
  }
 
  public function bind(array $taintedValues = null, array $taintedFiles = null)
  {
  	for($i=0;$i<$this->ncars;$i++)
  	{
  		if(!isset($taintedValues["cars"][$i]))
  		{
  			unset($this->widgetSchema["cars"][$i],$this->validatorSchema["cars"][$i]);
  		}
  	}
 
  	return parent::bind($taintedValues,$taintedFiles);
  }
 
  public function getModelName()
  {
  	return 'User';
  }
}

This form is the same we used in the city picker article, with some new things added in order to handle car form. In fact, configure method is exactly the same. Only __constructor and bind methods were added. Let’s talk about each method:

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  private $ncars = 0;
 
  public function __construct($object = null, $options = array(), $CSRFSecret = null)
  {
  	parent::__construct($object,$options,$CSRFSecret);
 
  	// calculate number of cars
  	$this->ncars = $object->getNumberOfCars();
 
  	// embed cars form
  	if($this->ncars)
  	{
  		$cars_form  = new CarForm();
		$this->embedFormForEach('cars',$cars_form,$this->ncars,'%content%','%content%');
 
  		// set default
  		$this->setDefault('cars',$object->getCars());
  	}
  	else $this->embedForm("cars",new sfForm(),"%content%");  	
  }

__constructor is where we actually embed the CarForm into CPUserForm. As we’ll use embedFormForEach, we need to know, beforehand, the number of times we’ll embed the form. To determine this number, we use the getNumberOfCars method, and also, we store resulting value in a private variable ncars, that will be used inside bind method. If any car was defined, we embed CarForm $ncars times, and then set default values, otherwise, we just embed a generic sForm form.

As I talked before, getNumberOfCars is a bit different and the reason is not hard to explain. Every time you use the green plus icon to add a new car form, it will add a new user[cars][N] element, where N is a sequential number, starting from 0. Suppose you add 4 car forms, and then you remove the third one. You would end up with: user[cars][0], user[cars][1], users[cars][3]. You see the gap? We don’t have [2] anymore. In this case, if getNumberOfCars returns 3 (the actuall number of cars), CPUserForm would embed only three CarForm, and user[cars][3] would become invalid, as it would be the forth form. That’s the reason we must return the highest key (plus 1), in ths case, 4. And now is where bind method takes place:

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  public function bind(array $taintedValues = null, array $taintedFiles = null)
  {
  	for($i=0;$i<$this->ncars;$i++)
  	{
  		if(!isset($taintedValues["cars"][$i]))
  		{
  			unset($this->widgetSchema["cars"][$i],$this->validatorSchema["cars"][$i]);
  		}
  	}
 
  	return parent::bind($taintedValues,$taintedFiles);
  }

Still using the same scenario (added 4 cars, then removed the third). As I said, we’ll still need to embed four forms in order to make it work, but you might think: in CarForm, make and model are required, wouldn’t it throw an error?? The answer is YES. We embed 4 forms, but supply data only for 3, so it will throw an validation error. To avoid this, we need to implement a conditional validation. Remember on constructor we saved the variable ncars? We’ll use it here to remove removed (uh?) cars. For this, we traverse through cars values, and if we don’t find it, we unset both widget and validator for that index. Doing this, the form won’t try to validate a removed field, and also, will remove the widget from the form, preventing it from appear again.

Ok, what about the actions?

apps/frontend/modules/citypicker/actions/actions.class.php:

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  public function executeEdit($request)
  {
  	if($request->getParameter('id')) $user = UserPeer::retrieveByPK($request->getParameter("id"));
  	else $user = new User();
  	$this->forward404Unless($user);
 
  	$this->errors = array();
  	if($request->isMethod('post'))
  	{
  		// pre-populate country, state and city in order to filter select boxes
  		$data = $request->getParameter('user');
  		$user->setCountryId(@$data['country_id']);
  		$user->setStateId(@$data['state_id']);
  		$user->setCityId(@$data['city_id']);
 
  		// check validity
  		if(!$user->getCity() || ($user->getCity()->getStateId() != $user->getStateId())) $user->setCityId(0);
  		if(!$user->getState() || ($user->getState()->getCountryId() != $user->getCountryId())) $user->setStateId(0);
  		if(!$user->getCountry()) $user->setCountryId(0);
 
  		// pre-populate cars so we can get number of cars entered
  		$user->setCars(@$data['cars'],true);
 
  		$this->form = new CPUserForm($user);
  		$this->form->bind($request->getParameter('user'));
  		if($request->getParameter('refresh') != "Y")
  		{
  			if($this->form->isValid())
  			{
  				$this->form->save();
 
  				// if we are handling a Soap request, do NOT redirect
  				if(!$this->isSoapRequest()) return $this->redirect('citypicker/index');
  			}
 
		  	// get errors into array
		  	foreach($this->form->getFormFieldSchema()->getError() as $e)
		  		$this->errors[] = $e;
  		}
  		else
  		{
  			// render city/state/country
  			return $this->renderPartial('address_edit',array('form'=>$this->form));
  		}
  	}
  	else 
  	{
  		$this->form = new CPUserForm($user);
  	}
  }

Again, most code on this action is to handle city picker and was detailed in another article. Only thing that’s related to CarForm is at line 22. Remember we use getNumberOfCars on CPUserForm constructor? So, we need to pre-populate user object we’ll send to the form with received car information, so it can determine beforehand the number of forms it need to embed. Also, we set $raw=true when calling setCars method, in order to preserve keys, or we’ll break the system.

Now only thing that’s missing is the template, where we’ll add all the javascripts needed to make it work.

apps/frontend/modules/citypicker/templates/editSuccess.php:

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<form method="post" action="<?=url_for('citypicker/edit?id='.$form->getObject()->getId()) ?>">
  <?=$form["id"]->render() ?>
  <table>
  	<?php if ($errors): ?>
    <tr>
    	<td colspan="2">
    		<ul>
    			<?php foreach ($errors as $error): ?>
					<li><?=$error ?></li>
				<?php endforeach; ?>
    		</ul>
    	</td>
    </tr>
	<?php endif; ?>
    <tr>
      <th><?=$form["name"]->renderLabel() ?></th>
      <td><?=$form["name"]->render() ?></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th>Address</th>
      <td>
        <div id="address">
        	<?=include_partial('address_edit',array('form'=>$form)) ?>
        </div>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    	<th>
    		Cars
    		<a href="#" title="Add new car" onclick="new Ajax.Updater('fieldset_cars', '<?=url_for('citypicker/addCar') ?>', {parameters: {number: ncars}, asynchronous:true, evalScripts:false, insertion:Insertion.Bottom, onSuccess:function(request, json){ncars++;}});; return false;">
    			<?=image_tag(sfConfig::get('sf_admin_web_dir').'/images/add.png',array('alt'=>'Add new car','border'=>'0')) ?>
    		</a>
    	</th>
    	<td id="fieldset_cars">
    		<?$form["cars"]->getWidget()->setFormFormatterName('options') ?>
   			<?=$form["cars"] ?>
    	</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">
        <input type="submit" name="submit" value="save"/>
        <?=button_to('cancel','citypicker/index') ?>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
	var	ncars = <?=count($form["cars"]->getWidget()->getWidget()->getFields()) ?>;
</script>

Ok, you just need to pay attention on code from line 27 on, everything above it is to handle citypicker (once again)…. In this template, we place the gren plus icon and attach a JavaScript event to it. This JavaScript will request an action using AJAX and will append the result in the fieldset_cars container (the action will result in HTML code). Notice that I didn’t use symfony helper to build this ajax call. The reason is that we need to send to the action current number of cars we have in the form, so it can return correct HTML code (field index), and I didn’t find any means to make it work with the helper, so I wrote the Ajax.Updater by myself. It will request the addCar action, and send value stored in ncars variable as a parameter, and then will increment it on success (so we keep track of how many cars we have). ncars is initialized at line 48, retrieving the number of embedded forms.
Another important detail is at line 35. Here we change the FormatterName for CarForm (I could have set it inside CarForm configure method, but this would break previous example). This new formatter will add sort/remove controls to the form:

lib/widget/sfWidgetFormSchemaFormatterOptions.php:

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class sfWidgetFormSchemaFormatterOptions extends sfWidgetFormSchemaFormatter
{
	protected $rowFormat = "";
 
	public function __construct(sfWidgetFormSchema $widgetSchema)
	{
		$this->rowFormat = " 
	<table>
	<tr>
		<th>
			Car
		    <a title="Move up" href="#" onclick="if($(this).up('table').previous('table')) $(this).up('table').previous('table').insert({before: $(this).up('table')}); return false">".image_tag('sf_admin/uparrow.png',array('border'=>0,'alt'=>'Move up'))."
		    <a title="Move down" href="#" onclick="if($(this).up('table').next('table')) $(this).up('table').next('table').insert({after: $(this).up('table')}); return false">".image_tag('sf_admin/downarrow.png',array('border'=>0,'alt'=>'Move down'))."
			<a title="'Remove this option" href="#" onclick="if(window.confirm('Are you sure you want to remove this option?')) $(this.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode).remove(); return false;">".image_tag(sfConfig::get('sf_admin_web_dir').'/images/delete.png',array('border'=>0,'alt'=>'Remove this option'))."</a>
		</th>
	</tr>
	%field%
	</table>";
 
		parent::__construct($widgetSchema);
	}
}

This formatter is a little bit different from normal formatters. Usually we only define a few variables inside the class, but we can’t do this here (well, we can, but we would need to write the <img>s by hand). The reason I defined the variable inside class __constructor is because I’m using image_tag helper to build the string, and we can’t to this when defining a variable in a class. Other than that, it’s a normal formatter, that wraps the form into a set of controls. Remember in setCars method, we rebuild array keys? The reason is explained here.. If you look at the javascript that sort the form, it simply swap the <table> elements, but field indexes will be kept the same. For instance, we have two cars added: user[cars][0] and user[cars][1]. If we swap it, we’ll have: user[cars][1] and user[cars][0]. Also, we can have gaps on the keys, so we need to rebuild the keys.

Ok, the last step now is the addCar action, that’s responsible to add a new form into the CPUserForm when u click the green plus icon:

apps/frontend/modules/citypicker/actions/actions.class.php:

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  public function executeAddCar($request)
  {
  	$this->forward404unless($request->isXmlHttpRequest());
 
  	// get next number
  	$number = intval($request->getParameter("number"));
 
  	// build widget
  	$form = new CarForm();
  	$widgetSchema = new sfWidgetFormSchemaDecorator(new sfWidgetFormSchema(array(
  		'user[cars]['.$number.']' => new sfWidgetFormSchemaDecorator($form->getWidgetSchema(), "%content%")
  	),array(),array(),array()), "%content%");
  	$widgetSchema->setFormFormatterName('options');
 
	$this->form = $widgetSchema;
  }

At line 6 we get the number of cars we already have, in order to build the next field index. Then, we need to build the form object that will be rendered by the template and sent back. One important point is: we need to build this widget as so the fields name is prefixed by: user[cars][$number]. For this, we wrap CarForm into a sfWidgetFormSchemaDecorator. Also, we need to set FormatterName to add the controls to the new form. Finally, we render it in the template:

apps/frontend/modules/citypicker/templates/addCarSuccess.php:

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<?=$form->render(null) ?>

And that’s it, our new form is ready to work. For this example I didn’t put attention to the design, but you can make it look nicer but changing the options formatter, and by using other formatter for the forms than the table one I’m using.

I’m not sure If I explained very well all the details of this implementation, so if you have any doubts, or comments, feel free to drop me a line on the comments section.

]]> http://blog.barros.ws/2009/01/01/using-embedformforeach-in-symfony-part-ii/feed/ 42 Using embedFormForEach in Symfony http://blog.barros.ws/2008/12/01/using-embedformforeach-in-symfon/ http://blog.barros.ws/2008/12/01/using-embedformforeach-in-symfon/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:07:14 +0000 Carlos Barros http://blog.barros.ws/?p=92 The new Form sub-framework, introduced in Symfony 1.1, is really great, and the more I work with it, the more I like it. One of the nicest feature of form sub-framework is the ability to embed a form inside another one, using the embedForm method. Also, symfony provides another method, called embedFormForEach that will embed a form inside another one N times. At first glance this method doesn’t seem to be very useful, but I found it really useful in a project I worked a few weeks ago. Consider the following scenario: you want a form to ask users to input information about all cars they have (make and model). In this form you have a select box (this can be an input box too, but I’m using a select box in this example) where users specify how many cars they have and then it will show X fields where users can input cars model and make (X = number of cars user selected), using ajax to load fields. You can see an example here.

For this example, we will need two forms: one containing the number of cars, and another one containing car details (that will be embedded into first one).

lib/CarsForm.class.php:

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class CarsForm extends sfForm
{
    public function __construct($defaults = array(), $options = array(), $CSRFSecret = null)
    {   
        parent::__construct($defaults,$options,$CSRFSecret);
 
        $this->embedFormForEach('cars',new CarForm(),in_array($defaults['cars_count'],array(1,2,3,4,5))?$defaults['cars_count']:1);
    }   
 
    public function configure()
    {   
        $this->setWidgets(array(
            'cars_count'        => new sfWidgetFormSelect(array('choices'=>array(1=>1,2=>2,3=>3,4=>4,5=>5))),
        ));     
 
        $this->setValidators(array(
            'cars_count'        => new sfValidatorChoice(array('choices'=>array(1,2,3,4,5))),
        ));     
 
        $this->widgetSchema->setLabels(array(
            'cars_count'        => 'Number of Cars',
        ));     
 
        $this->widgetSchema->setNameFormat('cars[%s]');
        $this->errorSchema = new sfValidatorErrorSchema($this->validatorSchema);
    }   
}

This is the main form, where we ask for number of cars and where we will embed details form. All the trick is done in the form constructor, specifically in line 7. embedFormForEach expect three parameters:

  • name
  • form to embed
  • number of times to embed

Our form expect to receive the number of cars in $defaults array, that stores default values of fields in the form, but before assigning it, we check if the number is within our list of allowed value. Note that list of values is hardcoded into the form. I just did it for the sake of simplicity, but I recommend creating a static method somewhere that will return these values. Ok, if our test succeed, we use received value and create requested number of CarForm form, otherwise we just create one (default).

lib/CarForm.class.php:

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class CarForm extends sfForm
{
    public function configure()
    {   
        $this->setWidgets(array(
            'make'        => new sfWidgetFormSelect(array('choices'=>array('ferrari'=>'Ferrari','bmw'=>'BMW','porsche'=>'Porsche'))),
            'model'        => new sfWidgetFormInput(),
        ));     
 
        $this->setValidators(array(
            'make'        => new sfValidatorChoice(array('choices'=>array('ferrari','bmw','porsche'))),
            'model'        => new sfValidatorString(array('required'=>true),array('required'=>'Please enter model')),
        ));     
 
        $this->widgetSchema->setLabels(array(
            'make'        => 'Make:',   
            'model'        => 'Model:', 
        ));     
 
        $this->widgetSchema->setNameFormat('%s');
        $this->errorSchema = new sfValidatorErrorSchema($this->validatorSchema);
    }   
}

This is the form with car details, called CarForm. This is a simple for, with nothing special, but there’s just one detail. At line 20, we set NameFormat to “%s”. Again, allowed values are hardcoded in the form, this should be avoided in real applications.

Ok, now that we already have the forms, we need to create the action and templates to handle the forms.

apps/frontend/modules/cars/actions/actions.class.php:

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 /**
  * Executes index action
  *
  * @param sfRequest $request A request object
  */
  public function executeIndex($request)
  {
  	// prepare form
  	if($request->isMethod('post'))
  	{
  		$this->form = new CarsForm($request->getParameter('cars'));
  		$this->form->bind($request->getParameter('cars'));
  		if($this->form->isValid())
  		{
  			$this->cars = $this->form->getValue("cars");
  			return $this->setTemplate('result');
  		}
  	}
  	else $this->form = new CarsForm(array('cars_count'=>1));
  }

This looks like a common action that handles form submission, but with one little change: we have to send default values to form constructor. If we are handling a GET request, we just set it to 1 (line 19), as we want just 1 form to be displayed at the beginning, but if we are handling a POST, we send entire form values to constructor (line 11), as our constructor will need to know beforehand how many cars are being submitted.
In the template, we will add a small piece of JavaScript to update the form, using AJAX, based on the number of cars the user selected:

apps/frontend/modules/cars/templates/indexSuccess.php

<form name="cars_frm" action="<?=url_for('cars/index') ?>" method="post">
  <table>
    <?=$form["cars_count"]->renderRow(array('onchange'=>"new Ajax.Updater("cars_table", '".url_for('cars/refresh')."', { parameters: { cars_count: $F('cars_cars_count') } } )")); ?>
    <tr>        
      <td>              
        <table id="cars_table"> 
          <?php include_partial('car_form',array('form'=>$form)) ?>
        </table>                
      </td>             
    </tr>       
  </table>
  <p><input type="submit" value="Submit" /></p>
</form>

apps/frontend/modules/cars/templates/_car_form.php:

<?=$form["cars"]->renderRow() ?>

In template, I added an listener to the onchange event of number of cars select box that will send a request to the refresh action, sending selected number of cars as parameter, and finally update cars_table container (all using prototype library). refresh action will receive the number of cars, instantiate the form, sending the number to the constructor, and then render _car_form partial.

apps/frontend/modules/actions/actions.class.php:

  /**
  * Update cars form
  *
  * @param sfWebRequest $request Web request object
  */
  public function executeRefresh($request)
  {
  	$this->form = new CarsForm(array('cars_count'=>$request->getParameter('cars_count')));
  	return $this->renderPartial('car_form');
  }

That’s it, the form is complete. After you validate it, getField(‘cars’) will return an associative array containing cars details submitted by the user. In this example I just write it back to the user, but you can do anything you want with this data, like serializing and then saving into DB.

apps/frontend/moduled/cars/templates/resultSuccess.php

<p>Selected cars:</p>
<?php foreach($cars as $car): ?>
	<p><b>Make:</b> <?=$car["make"] ?><br/><b>Model:</b> <?=$car["model"] ?></p>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Well, this example is a very simple one, but I think it’s a good start to understand how embedFormForEach can be used in your Symfony applications. Say, what if you want to remove the number of cars select box and rather have controls to dynamically add, delete and even sort car details?? Yes, that’s possible too, but I’ll leave this for a next article, that I should write as soon as I have some free time, for now I’ll leave this idea as an challenge :)

]]> http://blog.barros.ws/2008/12/01/using-embedformforeach-in-symfon/feed/ 8 Conditional validator in Symfony, another approach http://blog.barros.ws/2008/11/05/conditional-validator-in-symfony-another-approach/ http://blog.barros.ws/2008/11/05/conditional-validator-in-symfony-another-approach/#comments Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:10:27 +0000 Carlos Barros http://blog.barros.ws/?p=53 Today morning I was reading the Symfony blog, more specifically A week of symfony #96 and then I came across a tutorial talking about conditional validators.This is very usefull, I find myself using this technique very often, so I decided to write about another techinique I use sometimes to implement a conditional validation, but for a different scenario. Imagine the following: you have a contact form where the users specify how they want to be contacted, email or phone, throught a select box. Then you have two input boxes where the users can enter both email and phone. If the user opts to be contacted via email, email field becomes mandatory and phone number optional, and the opposite happens if the user opts to be contacted via phone. So, how to implement such a form in symfony?


A normal form would look like this:

lib/form/ContactForm.class.php:

class ContactForm extends sfForm
{
  public function configure()
  {
    $this->setWidgets(array(
      'method'	=> new sfWidgetFormSelect(array('choices'=>array('phone'=>'Phone','email'=>'Email'))),
      'email'	=> new sfWidgetFormInput(),
      'phone'	=> new sfWidgetFormInput(),
      'msg'	=> new sfWidgetFormTextarea(),
    ));
 
    $this->setValidators(array(
      'method'	=> new sfValidatorChoice(array(
			'choices'=>array('phone','email'),
		)),
      'email'	=> new sfValidatorEmail(array(
			'required'=>true,
		),array(
			'required'=>'Please enter your email address',
			'invalid'=>'Invalid email address'
		)),
      'phone'	=> new sfValidatorString(array(
			'required'=>true,
		),array(
			'required'=>'Please enter your phone number',
		)),
      'msg'	=> new sfValidatorString(array(
			'required'=>true,
		),array(
			'required'=>'Please enter your message',
		)),
    ));
 
    $this->widgetSchema->setLabels(array(
	'email'		=> 'Email:',
	'phone'		=> 'Phone:',
	'method'	=> 'Contact type:',
	'msg'		=> 'Message:',
    ));
 
    $this->widgetSchema->setNameFormat('contact[%s]');
    $this->errorSchema = new sfValidatorErrorSchema($this->validatorSchema);
  }

The problem with this form is the fact that both phone and email are ALWAYS mandatory, regardless of the value of method. So, what we need is a way to intercept method’s value and update validators. So, what we need is intercept the bind method in order to check method’s value:

lib/form/ContactForm.class.php:

  public function bind(array $taintedValues = null, array $taintedFiles = null)
  {
    if(@$taintedValues["method"] == 'phone') $this->validatorSchema["email"]->setOption('required',false);
    else $this->validatorSchema["phone"]->setOption('required',false);
 
    return parent::bind($taintedValues,$taintedFiles);
  }

As can be seen, we create our own bind method, overriding parent one, and before calling the actual bind method, we inspect the values sent by the user and if method is phone, we remove the required option from email validator, otherwise we remove the required option from phone validator and finally call parent method.

The resulting form can be seen here!

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