How to Implement a Registration Form

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How to Implement a Registration Form

The basics of creating a registration form are the same as any normal form. After all, you are creating an object with it (a user). However, since this is related to security, there are some additional aspects. This article explains it all.

Before you get Started

To create the registration form, make sure you have these 3 things ready:

1) Install MakerBundle

Make sure MakerBundle is installed:

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$ composer require --dev symfony/maker-bundle

If you need any other dependencies, MakerBundle will tell you when you run each command.

2) Create a User Class

If you already have a User class, great! If not, you can generate one by running:

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$ php bin/console make:user

For more info, see Security.

3) (Optional) Create a Guard Authenticator

If you want to automatically authenticate your user after registration, create a Guard authenticator before generating your registration form. For details, see the Security section on the main security page.

Adding the Registration System

To easiest way to build your registration form is by using the make:registration-form command:

New in version 1.11

The make:registration-form was introduced in MakerBundle 1.11.0.

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$ php bin/console make:registration-form

This command needs to know several things - like your User class and information about the properties on that class. The questions will vary based on your setup, because the command will guess as much as possible.

When the command is done, congratulations! You have a functional registration form system that's ready for you to customize. The generated files will look something like what you see below.

RegistrationFormType

The form class for the registration form will look something like this:

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namespace App\Form;

use App\Entity\User;
use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\PasswordType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolver;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints\Length;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints\NotBlank;

class RegistrationFormType extends AbstractType
{
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder
            ->add('email')
            ->add('plainPassword', PasswordType::class, [
                // instead of being set onto the object directly,
                // this is read and encoded in the controller
                'mapped' => false,
                'constraints' => [
                    new NotBlank([
                        'message' => 'Please enter a password',
                    ]),
                    new Length([
                        'min' => 6,
                        'minMessage' => 'Your password should be at least {{ limit }} characters',
                        'max' => 4096,
                    ]),
                ],
            ])
        ;
    }

    public function configureOptions(OptionsResolver $resolver)
    {
        $resolver->setDefaults([
            'data_class' => User::class,
        ]);
    }
}

Why the 4096 Password Limit?

Notice that the plainPassword field has a max length of 4096 characters. For security purposes (CVE-2013-5750), Symfony limits the plain password length to 4096 characters when encoding it. Adding this constraint makes sure that your form will give a validation error if anyone tries a super-long password.

You'll need to add this constraint anywhere in your application where your user submits a plaintext password (e.g. change password form). The only place where you don't need to worry about this is your login form, since Symfony's Security component handles this for you.

RegistrationController

The controller builds the form and, on submit, encodes the plain password and saves the user:

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namespace App\Controller;

use App\Entity\User;
use App\Form\RegistrationFormType;
use App\Security\StubAuthenticator;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Encoder\UserPasswordEncoderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Guard\GuardAuthenticatorHandler;

class RegistrationController extends AbstractController
{
    /**
     * @Route("/register", name="app_register")
     */
    public function register(Request $request, UserPasswordEncoderInterface $passwordEncoder): Response
    {
        $user = new User();
        $form = $this->createForm(RegistrationFormType::class, $user);
        $form->handleRequest($request);

        if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid()) {
            // encode the plain password
            $user->setPassword(
                $passwordEncoder->encodePassword(
                    $user,
                    $form->get('plainPassword')->getData()
                )
            );

            $entityManager = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
            $entityManager->persist($user);
            $entityManager->flush();

            // do anything else you need here, like send an email

            return $this->redirectToRoute('app_homepage');
        }

        return $this->render('registration/register.html.twig', [
            'registrationForm' => $form->createView(),
        ]);
    }
}

register.html.twig

The template renders the form:

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{% extends 'base.html.twig' %}

{% block title %}Register{% endblock %}

{% block body %}
    <h1>Register</h1>

    {{ form_start(registrationForm) }}
        {{ form_row(registrationForm.email) }}
        {{ form_row(registrationForm.plainPassword) }}

        <button class="btn">Register</button>
    {{ form_end(registrationForm) }}
{% endblock %}

Adding a "accept terms" Checkbox

Sometimes, you want a "Do you accept the terms and conditions" checkbox on your registration form. The only trick is that you want to add this field to your form without adding an unnecessary new termsAccepted property to your User entity that you'll never need.

To do this, add a termsAccepted field to your form, but set its mapped option to false:

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// src/Form/UserType.php
// ...
use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\CheckboxType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\EmailType;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints\IsTrue;

class UserType extends AbstractType
{
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder
            ->add('email', EmailType::class)
            // ...
            ->add('termsAccepted', CheckboxType::class, [
                'mapped' => false,
                'constraints' => new IsTrue(),
            ])
        ;
    }
}

The constraints option is also used, which allows us to add validation, even though there is no termsAccepted property on User.

Manually Authenticating after Success

If you're using Guard authentication, you can automatically authenticate after registration is successful. The generator may have already configured your controller to take advantage of this.

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.