form Field Type
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form Field Type
The form
type predefines a couple of options that are then available
on all types for which form
is the parent type.
Options | |
Inherited options | |
Parent | none |
Class | FormType |
Field Options
action
2.3
The action
option was introduced in Symfony 2.3.
type: string
default: empty string
This option specifies where to send the form's data on submission (usually
a URI). Its value is rendered as the action
attribute of the form
element. An empty value is considered a same-document reference, i.e. the
form will be submitted to the same URI that rendered the form.
by_reference
type: boolean
default: true
In most cases, if you have a name
field, then you expect setName()
to be called on the underlying object. In some cases, however, setName()
may not be called. Setting by_reference
ensures that the setter is
called in all cases.
To explain this further, here's a simple example:
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$builder = $this->createFormBuilder($article);
$builder
->add('title', 'text')
->add(
$builder->create('author', 'form', array('by_reference' => ?))
->add('name', 'text')
->add('email', 'email')
)
If by_reference
is true, the following takes place behind the scenes
when you call submit()
(or handleRequest()
) on the form:
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$article->setTitle('...');
$article->getAuthor()->setName('...');
$article->getAuthor()->setEmail('...');
Notice that setAuthor()
is not called. The author is modified by reference.
If you set by_reference
to false, submitting looks like this:
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$article->setTitle('...');
$author = $article->getAuthor();
$author->setName('...');
$author->setEmail('...');
$article->setAuthor($author);
So, all that by_reference=false
really does is force the framework to
call the setter on the parent object.
Similarly, if you're using the collection
form type where your underlying collection data is an object (like with
Doctrine's ArrayCollection
), then by_reference
must be set to false
if you need the adder and remover (e.g. addAuthor()
and removeAuthor()
)
to be called.
cascade_validation
type: boolean
default: false
Set this option to true
to force validation on embedded form types.
For example, if you have a ProductType
with an embedded CategoryType
,
setting cascade_validation
to true
on ProductType
will cause
the data from CategoryType
to also be validated.
Tip
Instead of using this option, it is recommended that you use the Valid
constraint in your model to force validation on a child object stored
on a property. This cascades only the validation but not the use of
the validation_groups
option on child forms. You can read more
about this in the section about
Embedding a Single Object.
Tip
By default the error_bubbling
option is enabled for the
collection Field Type,
which passes the errors to the parent form. If you want to attach
the errors to the locations where they actually occur you have to
set error_bubbling
to false
.
compound
type: boolean
default: true
This option specifies if a form is compound. This is independent of whether the form actually has children. A form can be compound but not have any children at all (e.g. an empty collection form).
constraints
type: array
or Constraint default: null
Allows you to attach one or more validation constraints to a specific field. For more information, see Adding Validation. This option is added in the FormTypeValidatorExtension form extension.
data
type: mixed
default: Defaults to field of the underlying object (if there is one)
When you create a form, each field initially displays the value of the corresponding property of the form's domain object (if an object is bound to the form). If you want to override the initial value for the form or just an individual field, you can set it in the data option:
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$builder->add('token', 'hidden', array(
'data' => 'abcdef',
));
Note
The default values for form fields are taken directly from the underlying
data structure (e.g. an entity or an array). The data
option overrides
this default value.
data_class
type: string
This option is used to set the appropriate data mapper to be used by the form, so you can use it for any form field type which requires an object.
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$builder->add('media', 'sonata_media_type', array(
'data_class' => 'Acme\DemoBundle\Entity\Media',
));
empty_data
type: mixed
DEFAULT_PLACEHOLDER
This option determines what value the field will return when the submitted value is empty.
But you can customize this to your needs. For example, if you want the
gender
choice field to be explicitly set to null
when no value is
selected, you can do it like this:
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$builder->add('gender', 'choice', array(
'choices' => array(
'm' => 'Male',
'f' => 'Female'
),
'required' => false,
'empty_value' => 'Choose your gender',
'empty_data' => null
));
Note
If you want to set the empty_data
option for your entire form class,
see the cookbook article How to Configure empty Data for a Form Class.
:end-before: DEFAULT_PLACEHOLDER
The actual default value of this option depends on other field options:
- If
data_class
is set andrequired
istrue
, thennew $data_class()
; - If
data_class
is set andrequired
isfalse
, thennull
; - If
data_class
is not set andcompound
istrue
, thenarray()
(empty array); - If
data_class
is not set andcompound
isfalse
, then''
(empty string).
empty_data
type: mixed
DEFAULT_PLACEHOLDER
This option determines what value the field will return when the submitted value is empty.
But you can customize this to your needs. For example, if you want the
gender
choice field to be explicitly set to null
when no value is
selected, you can do it like this:
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$builder->add('gender', 'choice', array(
'choices' => array(
'm' => 'Male',
'f' => 'Female'
),
'required' => false,
'empty_value' => 'Choose your gender',
'empty_data' => null
));
Note
If you want to set the empty_data
option for your entire form class,
see the cookbook article How to Configure empty Data for a Form Class.
:start-after: DEFAULT_PLACEHOLDER
error_bubbling
type: boolean
default: false
unless the form is compound
If true
, any errors for this field will be passed to the parent field
or form. For example, if set to true
on a normal field, any errors for
that field will be attached to the main form, not to the specific field.
error_mapping
2.1
The error_mapping
option was introduced in Symfony 2.1.
type: array
default: array()
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)
{
$resolver->setDefaults(array(
'error_mapping' => array(
'matchingCityAndZipCode' => 'city',
),
));
}
Here are the rules for the left and the right side of the mapping:
- The left side contains property paths;
- If the violation is generated on a property or method of a class, its
path is simply
propertyName
; - If the violation is generated on an entry of an
array
orArrayAccess
object, the property path is[indexName]
; - You can construct nested property paths by concatenating them, separating
properties by dots. For example:
addresses[work].matchingCityAndZipCode
; - The right side contains simply the names of fields in the form.
By default, errors for any property that is not mapped will bubble up to the
parent form. You can use the dot (.
) on the left side to map errors of all
unmapped properties to a particular field. For instance, to map all these
errors to the city
field, use:
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$resolver->setDefaults(array(
'error_mapping' => array(
'.' => 'city',
),
));
extra_fields_message
type: string
default: This form should not contain extra fields.
This is the validation error message that's used if the submitted form data
contains one or more fields that are not part of the form definition. The
placeholder {{ extra_fields }}
can be used to display a comma separated
list of the submitted extra field names.
inherit_data
2.3
The inherit_data
option was introduced in Symfony 2.3. Before, it
was known as virtual
.
type: boolean
default: false
This option determines if the form will inherit data from its parent form. This can be useful if you have a set of fields that are duplicated across multiple forms. See How to Reduce Code Duplication with "inherit_data".
Caution
When a field has the inherit_data
option set, it uses the data of
the parent form as is. This means that
Data Transformers won't be
applied to that field.
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),
));
label_attr
type: array
default: array()
Sets the HTML attributes for the <label>
element, which will be used
when rendering the label for the field. It's an associative array with HTML
attribute as a key. This attributes can also be directly set inside the
template:
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{{ form_label(form.name, 'Your name', {
'label_attr': {'class': 'CUSTOM_LABEL_CLASS'}
}) }}
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echo $view['form']->label(
$form['name'],
'Your name',
array('label_attr' => array('class' => 'CUSTOM_LABEL_CLASS'))
);
mapped
type: boolean
default: true
If you wish the field to be ignored when reading or writing to the object,
you can set the mapped
option to false
.
max_length
type: integer
default: null
If this option is not null, an attribute maxlength
is added, which
is used by some browsers to limit the amount of text in a field.
This is just a browser validation, so data must still be validated server-side.
method
2.3
The method
option was introduced in Symfony 2.3.
type: string
default: POST
This option specifies the HTTP method used to submit the form's data. Its
value is rendered as the method
attribute of the form
element and
is used to decide whether to process the form submission in the
handleRequest()
method after submission. Possible values are:
- POST
- GET
- PUT
- DELETE
- PATCH
Note
When the method is PUT, PATCH, or DELETE, Symfony will automatically
render a _method
hidden field in your form. This is used to "fake"
these HTTP methods, as they're not supported on standard browsers. For
more information, see How to Use HTTP Methods beyond GET and POST in Routes.
Note
The PATCH method allows submitting partial data. In other words, if
the submitted form data is missing certain fields, those will be ignored
and the default values (if any) will be used. With all other HTTP methods,
if the submitted form data is missing some fields, those fields are
set to null
.
pattern
type: string
default: null
This adds an HTML5 pattern
attribute to restrict the field input by
a given regular expression.
Caution
The pattern
attribute provides client-side validation for convenience
purposes only and must not be used as a replacement for reliable
server-side validation.
Note
When using validation constraints, this option is set automatically for some constraints to match the server-side validation.
post_max_size_message
type: string
default: The uploaded file was too large. Please try to upload a smaller file.
This is the validation error message that's used if submitted POST form
data exceeds php.ini
's post_max_size
directive. The {{ max }}
placeholder can be used to display the allowed size.
Note
Validating the post_max_size
only happens on the root form.
property_path
type: any
default: the field's name
Fields display a property value of the form's domain object by default. When the form is submitted, the submitted value is written back into the object.
If you want to override the property that a field reads from and writes
to, you can set the property_path
option. Its default value is the field's
name.
If you wish the field to be ignored when reading or writing to the object
you can set the property_path
option to false
, but using
property_path
for this purpose is deprecated, you should use the
mapped
option.
2.1
The mapped
option was introduced in Symfony 2.1 for this use-case.
read_only
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.
required
type: boolean
default: true
If true, an HTML5 required attribute will be rendered. The corresponding
label
will also render with a required
class.
This is superficial and independent from validation. At best, if you let Symfony guess your field type, then the value of this option will be guessed from your validation information.
Note
The required option also affects how empty data for each field is handled. For more details, see the empty_data option.
Inherited Options
The following options are defined in the
BaseType class.
The BaseType
class is the parent class for both the form
type and
the button type, but it is not part
of the form type tree (i.e. it can not be used as a form type on its own).
attr
type: array
default: array()
If you want to add extra attributes to an HTML field representation
you can use the attr
option. It's an associative array with HTML attributes
as keys. This can be useful when you need to set a custom class for some widget:
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$builder->add('body', 'textarea', array(
'attr' => array('class' => 'tinymce'),
));
auto_initialize
type: boolean
default: true
An internal option: sets whether the form should be initialized automatically.
For all fields, this option should only be true
for root forms. You
won't need to change this option and probably won't need to worry about
it.
block_name
type: string
default: the form's name (see Knowing which
block to customize)
Allows you to override the block name used to render the form type. Useful for example if you have multiple instances of the same form and you need to personalize the rendering of the forms individually.
disabled
2.1
The disabled
option was introduced in Symfony 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.
label
type: string
default: The label is "guessed" from the field name
Sets the label that will be used when rendering the field. Setting to false will suppress the label. The label can also be directly set inside the template:
1
{{ form_label(form.name, 'Your name') }}
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echo $view['form']->label(
$form['name'],
'Your name'
);
translation_domain
type: string
default: messages
This is the translation domain that will be used for any labels or options that are rendered for this field.