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  5. time Field Type
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Table of Contents

  • Basic Usage
  • Field Options
    • widget
    • input
    • with_seconds
    • hours
    • minutes
    • seconds
    • data_timezone
    • user_timezone
  • Overridden Options
    • by_reference
    • error_bubbling
  • Inherited options
    • invalid_message
    • invalid_message_parameters
    • read_only
    • disabled
    • mapped
    • virtual
    • error_mapping

time Field Type

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Warning: You are browsing the documentation for Symfony 2.1, which is no longer maintained.

Read the updated version of this page for Symfony 6.2 (the current stable version).

time Field Type

A field to capture time input.

This can be rendered as a text field, a series of text fields (e.g. hour, minute, second) or a series of select fields. The underlying data can be stored as a DateTime object, a string, a timestamp or an array.

Underlying Data Type can be DateTime, string, timestamp, or array (see the input option)
Rendered as can be various tags (see below)
Options
  • widget
  • input
  • with_seconds
  • hours
  • minutes
  • seconds
  • data_timezone
  • user_timezone
Overridden Options
  • by_reference
  • error_bubbling
Inherited options
  • invalid_message
  • invalid_message_parameters
  • read_only
  • disabled
  • mapped
  • virtual
  • error_mapping
Parent type form
Class TimeType

Basic Usage

This field type is highly configurable, but easy to use. The most important options are input and widget.

Suppose that you have a startTime field whose underlying time data is a DateTime object. The following configures the time type for that field as three different choice fields:

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$builder->add('startTime', 'time', array(
    'input'  => 'datetime',
    'widget' => 'choice',
));

The input option must be changed to match the type of the underlying date data. For example, if the startTime field's data were a unix timestamp, you'd need to set input to timestamp:

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$builder->add('startTime', 'time', array(
    'input'  => 'timestamp',
    'widget' => 'choice',
));

The field also supports an array and string as valid input option values.

Field Options

widget

type: string default: choice

The basic way in which this field should be rendered. Can be one of the following:

  • choice: renders two (or three if with_seconds is true) select inputs.
  • text: renders a two or three text inputs (hour, minute, second).
  • single_text: renders a single input of type text. User's input will be validated against the form hh:mm (or hh:mm:ss if using seconds).

input

type: string default: datetime

The format of the input data - i.e. the format that the date is stored on your underlying object. Valid values are:

  • string (e.g. 12:17:26)
  • datetime (a DateTime object)
  • array (e.g. array('hour' => 12, 'minute' => 17, 'second' => 26))
  • timestamp (e.g. 1307232000)

The value that comes back from the form will also be normalized back into this format.

with_seconds

type: Boolean default: false

Whether or not to include seconds in the input. This will result in an additional input to capture seconds.

hours

type: array default: 0 to 23

List of hours available to the hours field type. This option is only relevant when the widget option is set to choice.

minutes

type: array default: 0 to 59

List of minutes available to the minutes field type. This option is only relevant when the widget option is set to choice.

seconds

type: array default: 0 to 59

List of seconds available to the seconds field type. This option is only relevant when the widget option is set to choice.

data_timezone

type: string default: system default timezone

Timezone that the input data is stored in. This must be one of the PHP supported timezones

user_timezone

type: string default: system default timezone

Timezone for how the data should be shown to the user (and therefore also the data that the user submits). This must be one of the PHP supported timezones

Overridden Options

by_reference

default: false

The DateTime classes are treated as immutable objects.

error_bubbling

default: false

Inherited options

These options inherit from the field type:

invalid_message

type: string default: This value is not valid

This is the validation error message that's used if the data entered into this field doesn't make sense (i.e. fails validation).

This might happen, for example, if the user enters a nonsense string into a time field that cannot be converted into a real time or if the user enters a string (e.g. apple) into a number field.

Normal (business logic) validation (such as when setting a minimum length for a field) should be set using validation messages with your validation rules (reference).

invalid_message_parameters

type: array default: array()

When setting the invalid_message option, you may need to include some variables in the string. This can be done by adding placeholders to that option and including the variables in this option:

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$builder->add('some_field', 'some_type', array(
    // ...
    'invalid_message'            => 'You entered an invalid value - it should include %num% letters',
    'invalid_message_parameters' => array('%num%' => 6),
));

read_only

2.1

The read_only option was changed in 2.1 to render as a readonly HTML attribute. Previously, it rendered as a disabled attribute. Use the disabled option if you need the old behavior.

type: Boolean default: false

If this option is true, the field will be rendered with the readonly attribute so that the field is not editable.

disabled

2.1

The disabled option is new in version 2.1

type: boolean default: false

If you don't want a user to modify the value of a field, you can set
the disabled option to true. Any submitted value will be ignored.

mapped

type: boolean

If you wish the field to be ignored when reading or writing to the object, you can set the mapped option to false.

virtual

type: boolean default: false

This option determines if the form will be mapped with data. This can be useful if you need a form to structure the view. See How to use the Virtual Form Field Option.

2.1

The error_mapping option is new to Symfony 2.1.

error_mapping

type: array default: empty

This option allows you to modify the target of a validation error.

Imagine you have a custom method named matchingCityAndZipCode that validates whether the city and zip code match. Unfortunately, there is no "matchingCityAndZipCode"
field in your form, so all that Symfony can do is display the error on top of the form.

With customized error mapping, you can do better: map the error to the city field so that it displays above it:

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public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
{
    $resolver->setDefaults(array(
        'error_mapping' => array(
            'matchingCityAndZipCode' => 'city',
        ),
    ));
}

Here are the rules for the left and the right side of the mapping:

  • The left side contains property paths.
  • If the violation is generated on a property or method of a class, its path is simply "propertyName".
  • If the violation is generated on an entry of an array or ArrayAccess object, the property path is [indexName].
  • You can construct nested property paths by concatenating them, separating properties by dots. For example: addresses[work].matchingCityAndZipCode
  • The left side of the error mapping also accepts a dot ., which refers to the field itself. That means that any error added to the field is added to the given nested field instead.
  • The right side contains simply the names of fields in the form.
This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.
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