Symfony2: dynamic form using Form Events

Question

I have some problems to make a dynamic form in my Symfony2 project. I try to follow the doc here, but it hard to understand how to really proceed with it. I try to have a form like this on the page.

Indeed, I need to create a dynamic form where dropdown list dynamically change their values when a value is selected from the dropdown list before.

This dynamic form involves 4 entities:

Parcsimmobilier.php <= ManyToOne Ensembles.php <= ManyToOne Batiments.php <= ManyToOne Zonestechnique.php

1- the first dopdown concerns the parc, when I choose a value in this dropdown, the ensembles dropdown appears. The values of the ensembles dropdown must belong to the parcs I choose first.

2- the second dropdown with ensembles value: when I selected a value, the third dropdown appears, it concerns the categories of my zones (entity Zonestechnique).

3- the zones categories dropdown have multiple choice, but when I choose the value "outside", the last dropdown with the batiments values appears but with the value "none" inevitably. But if I choose other values than "outside", the batiments dropdown appears with all batiments (belong to the ensemble I choose before).

4- when I make all this steps, the rest of the form appears (form for Zones technique entity)

I have to proceed this form when I want to add/create a new Zones technique in my database.

Here the code for my entities:

//Parcsimmobilier entity
class Parcsimmobilier
{
/**
 * @var integer
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer", nullable=false)
 * @ORM\Id
 * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
 */
private $id;

/**
 * @var string
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="nom", type="string", length=150, nullable=false)
 */
private $nom;

 /**
 * @var \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
 *
 * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Ensembles", mappedBy="parcsimmobilier")
 */
private $ensembles;
//end of Parcsimmobilier entity


//Ensembles entity
class Ensembles
{
/**
 * @var integer
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer", nullable=false)
 * @ORM\Id
 * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
 */
private $id;

 /**
 * @var string
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="nom", type="string", length=150, nullable=false)
 */
private $nom;

 /**
 * @var \Parcsimmobilier
 *
 * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Parcsimmobilier")
 * @ORM\JoinColumns({
 *   @ORM\JoinColumn(name="parcsimmobilier_id", referencedColumnName="id")
 * })
 */
private $parcsimmobilier;
//end of Ensembles entity


//Batiments entity
class Batiments
{
/**
 * @var integer
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer", nullable=false)
 * @ORM\Id
 * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
 */
private $id;

/**
 * @var string
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="nom", type="string", length=150, nullable=true)
 */
private $nom;

/**
 * @var \Ensembles
 *
 * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Ensembles")
 * @ORM\JoinColumns({
 *   @ORM\JoinColumn(name="ensembles_id", referencedColumnName="id")
 * })
 */
private $ensembles;
//end of Batiments entity


//Zonestechnique entity
class Zonestechnique
{
/**
 * @var integer
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer", nullable=false)
 * @ORM\Id
 * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
 */
private $id;

/**
 * @var string
 *
 * @ORM\Column(name="nom", type="string", length=150, nullable=false)
 */
private $nom;

/**
 * @var \Batiments
 *
 * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Batiments")
 * @ORM\JoinColumns({
 *   @ORM\JoinColumn(name="batiments_id", referencedColumnName="id")
 * })
 */
private $batiments;

/**
 * @var \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
 *
 * @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Categorieszonestechnique")
 * @ORM\JoinTable(name="zonestechnique_categorieszonestechnique",
 *   joinColumns={
 *     @ORM\JoinColumn(name="zonestechnique_id", referencedColumnName="id")
 *   },
 *   inverseJoinColumns={
 *     @ORM\JoinColumn(name="categorieszonestechnique_id", referencedColumnName="id")
 *   }
 * )
 */

 private $categorieszonestechnique;

Following the doc, this is my formtype, ZonesTechniqueType.php:

use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolverInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormEvent;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormEvents;

class ZonestechniqueType extends AbstractType
{
    /**
     * @param FormBuilderInterface $builder
     * @param array $options
     */
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder
            ->add('parcsimmobilier', 'entity', array(
                                            'class'    => 'EnexgirDatabaseBundle:Parcsimmobilier',
                                            'property' => 'nom',
                                            'multiple' => false,
                                            'required' => true,
                                            'mapped' => false,
                                            'empty_value' => '-- sélectionner un parc --',
                                            'label'    => 'Choisir le parc immobilier : ',
                                            'attr' => array('class' => 'col-xs-3 form-control')))
            ->add('nom')
            ->add('localisation')
            ->add('commentaire')
            ->add('categorieszonestechnique')
            ->add('batiments');

            $formModifier = function (FormInterface $form, Parcsimmobilier $parc = null) {
                $ensembles = null === $parc ? array() : $parc->getEnsembles();

                $form->add('ensembles', 'entity', array(
                                                'class'       => 'EnexgirDatabaseBundle:Ensembles',
                                                'property' => 'nom',
                                                'multiple' => false,
                                                'required' => true,
                                                'mapped' => true,
                                                'empty_value' => '-- sélectionner un ensemble --',
                                                'label'    => 'Choisir l\'ensemble : ',
                                                'query_builder' => function(EntityRepository $er) use ($parc) {
                                                                    return $er->createQueryBuilder('e')
                                                                        ->where("e.parcsimmobilier = :parcsimmobilier_id")
                                                                        ->orderBy('e.nom', 'ASC')
                                                                        ->setParameter(':parcsimmobilier_id', $parc);
                                                                    },
                ));
            };

            $builder->addEventListener(
                FormEvents::PRE_SET_DATA,
                function (FormEvent $event) use ($formModifier) {
                    // this would be your entity
                    $data = $event->getData();

                    $formModifier($event->getForm(), $data->getEnsembles());
                }
            );

            $builder->get('parcsimmobilier')->addEventListener(
                FormEvents::POST_SUBMIT,

This is the controller method I use for:

public function addZonesConformitesAction(Request $request) {

        $em=$this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
        $zoneConformite = $em->getRepository('EnexgirDatabaseBundle:Zonestechnique');

        $zoneConformite = new Zonestechnique;
        $form=$this->createForm(new ZonestechniqueType(), $zoneConformite);

        $form->handleRequest($request);

            //instruction if à plusieurs conditions: ici si la method est POST et si le formulaire est valide
            if ($request->isMethod('POST') | ($form->isValid())) {

                    $form->bind($request);
                    $zoneConformite = $form->getData();

                    $em->persist($zoneConformite);
                    $em->flush();

                    return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('indexRechercheZones'));
                }

            //retourner le formulaire d'ajout si c'est invalide
            else {
                    return $this->render('EnexgirGestionEquipementsTechniquesBundle:ZonesTechnique:ajouterZonesTechniqueConformites.html.twig', array('form' => $form->createView() ));
                }
    }

And finally, the block content of my twig:

{% block content %}
    <div class="panel-heading">
      <h3 class="panel-title"> Gestion Des Zones techniques -<small>&nbsp;&nbsp;(ajout)</small></h3>
    </div>
    {# Panel Body #}
    <div class="panel-body">
      {# Menu #}
      <div class="panel-body">
        <ul class="nav nav-tabs">
            <li role="presentation">
                <a href="{{ path('indexRechercheZones') }}">Visualisation des Zones techniques</a>
            </li>
          <li role="presentation" class="active">
            <a>Ajouter une Zone technique et ses Conformités</a>
          </li>
        </ul>
      </div>
      {# Formulaire #}
      <div class="page-header">
        <h4><b><u>Ajouter une zone technique et ses conformites</u></b><small>&nbsp;&nbsp;(créer une zone technique qui n'existe pas encore, ainsi que ses conformités respectives)</small></h4>
        <br>
        <form action="{{ path('ajouterZonesConformites_process') }}" method="POST" {{ form_enctype(form) }}>
          <div>
            {{ form_start(form) }}
              {{ form_row(form.parcsimmobilier) }}    {# <select id="meetup_sport" ... #}
              {{ form_row(form.ensembles) }} {# <select id="meetup_position" ... #}
            {{ form_end(form) }}
          {# validation #}
            <input type="submit" value="Ajouter" class="btn btn-success"/>
          </div>
          <br>
        </form>
      </div>
    </div>
  {% endblock %}

For now, I have not introduce the Ajax code in my twig because I have this error:

Attempted to call method "getEnsembles" on class "Enexgir\DatabaseBundle\Entity\Zonestechnique" in C:\wamp\www\MyPathToMyProject\src\Enexgir\DatabaseBundle\Form\ZonestechniqueType.php line 65.

This is the code for the line 65:

$formModifier($event->getForm(), $data->getEnsembles());

I understand that Ensembles.php and Parcsimmobilier.php have no relation with Zonestechnique.php, but I follow the doc, and I don't really understand how this is worked. Someone could help me to understand and make this form?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

@Chausser made a good point since in your code in that section $formModifier($event->getForm(), $data->getEnsembles()); you passed an instance of Ensembles so don't need to call $data->getEnsembles() again. Hope it helps

Answer 2

The symfony form events system could surely use some streamlining. That being said this is possible to accomplish. For each drop down that will appear you will need 2 form events (PRE_SET_DATA/POST_SUBMIT). You should be able to combine all of your PRE_SET_DATA events into 1 function but you will have to handle the POST_SUBMIT events in seperate functions as they are bound to the form

You will need to change your if statement to:

if($request->isMethod('POST') && !$request->isXmlHttpRequest() && $form->isValid())

You also dont need to call:

$form->bind($request);

if you have already called:

$form->handleRequest($request);

The latter is a replacement for the first.

By only "processing" the form for non AJAX requests this will allow your form to get the updated data and trigger the form events and return it.