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Home » Documentation » The Cookbook » Form » How to Reduce Code Duplication with "inherit_data"
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How to Reduce Code Duplication with "inherit_data"

How to Reduce Code Duplication with "inherit_data"

New in version 2.3: This inherit_data option was known as virtual before Symfony 2.3.

The inherit_data form field option can be very useful when you have some duplicated fields in different entities. For example, imagine you have two entities, a Company and a Customer:

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// src/Acme/HelloBundle/Entity/Company.php
namespace Acme\HelloBundle\Entity;

class Company
{
    private $name;
    private $website;

    private $address;
    private $zipcode;
    private $city;
    private $country;
}

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// src/Acme/HelloBundle/Entity/Customer.php
namespace Acme\HelloBundle\Entity;

class Customer
{
    private $firstName;
    private $lastName;

    private $address;
    private $zipcode;
    private $city;
    private $country;
}

As you can see, each entity shares a few of the same fields: address, zipcode, city, country.

Let's build two forms for these entities, CompanyType and CustomerType:

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// src/Acme/HelloBundle/Form/Type/CompanyType.php
namespace Acme\HelloBundle\Form\Type;

use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilder;

use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;

class CompanyType extends AbstractType
{
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder
            ->add('name', 'text')
            ->add('website', 'text');
    }
}

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// src/Acme/HelloBundle/Form/Type/CustomerType.php
namespace Acme\HelloBundle\Form\Type;

use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;

class CustomerType extends AbstractType
{
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder
            ->add('firstName', 'text')
            ->add('lastName', 'text');
    }
}

Instead of including the duplicated fields address, zipcode, city and country``in both of these forms, we will create a third form for that. We will call this form simply ``LocationType:

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// src/Acme/HelloBundle/Form/Type/LocationType.php
namespace Acme\HelloBundle\Form\Type;

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

class LocationType extends AbstractType
{
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder
            ->add('address', 'textarea')
            ->add('zipcode', 'text')
            ->add('city', 'text')
            ->add('country', 'text');
    }

    public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
    {
        $resolver->setDefaults(array(
            'inherit_data' => true
        ));
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return 'location';
    }
}

The location form has an interesting option set, namely inherit_data. This option lets the form inherit its data from its parent form. If embedded in the company form, the fields of the location form will access the properties of the Company instance. If embedded in the customer form, the fields will access the properties of the Customer instance instead. Easy, eh?

Note

Instead of setting the inherit_data option inside LocationType, you can also (just like with any option) pass it in the third argument of $builder->add().

Let's make this work by adding the location form to our two original forms:

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// src/Acme/HelloBundle/Form/Type/CompanyType.php
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
    // ...

    $builder->add('foo', new LocationType(), array(
        'data_class' => 'Acme\HelloBundle\Entity\Company'
    ));
}

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// src/Acme/HelloBundle/Form/Type/CustomerType.php
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
    // ...

    $builder->add('bar', new LocationType(), array(
        'data_class' => 'Acme\HelloBundle\Entity\Customer'
    ));
}

That's it! You have extracted duplicated field definitions to a separate location form that you can reuse wherever you need it.

« How to Create a Form Type Extension | How to Unit Test your Forms »

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