Setting a value to a hidden form symfony field

The case

Sometimes, when creating a new object, we need to give a default value to a specific field but we don’t want this field to be visible in the form.
A tipical example would it be a blog -> post relationship. Where we want the blog_id field to be set automatically but we want it to be hidden.

Blog->Post

Blog->Post

The mistake

When creating a new post for a blog, we do not want the blog_id field to be visible, so we typically go to PostForm.class.php and unset the field blog_id:

//myproject/lib/form/PostForm.class.form
class PostForm extends BasePostForm
{
  public function configure()
  {
    unset( $this['blog_id'] );
  }
}

Then, we edit the action class and set a default value for the blog_id field:

// mypoject/modules/post/actions/actions.class.php
class postActions extends sfActions
{
  public function executeNew(sfWebRequest $request)
  {  
    // create the form
    $form = new PostForm();
 
    // get blog_id parameter from the request
    // and set the default value
    $form->setDefault("blog_id", $request->getParameter('blog_id') );
 
    $this->form = $form;
  }
  //... rest of actions here ...
}

Finally, when we try to create a new post, we realize that the blog_id has not been set correctly.

The solution

Instead of unsetting the blog_id field, we have to change its widget to a sfWidgetFormInputHidden:

//PostForm.class.form
class PostForm extends BasePostForm
{
  public function configure()
  {
    // the wrong way in this case
    // unset( $this['blog_id'] );
 
    // the right way in this case
    $this->widgetSchema['blog_id'] = new sfWidgetFormInputHidden();
  }
}

This way the field blog_id remains hidden but do exists in the form, so the setDefault method works correctly.

Category: Symfony | Tags: , , , 8 comments »

8 Responses to “Setting a value to a hidden form symfony field”

  1. Nadine
    July 18th, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    Can i get a one small photo from your site?
  2. nanomuelle
    July 20th, 2009 at 9:26 am

    Yes. Which one do you want?
  3. tk
    November 8th, 2009 at 12:20 am

    I have a question. I want to disable a field while I edit. For example, in user creation. I want to allow user to set “username”. However, when they edit, they should not be able to edit the “username”. How can I disable a field depend on different action?

    Thanks
  4. nanomuelle
    November 10th, 2009 at 8:45 am

    Hi,

    In executeEdit get the schema of the form, and add a readonly attribute to the field you want. Something like this:

    $this->form = new UserForm();
$schema = $this->form->getWidgetSchema();
$schema['username']->setAttribute('readonly', 'readonly');
  5. BItcoder
    March 5th, 2010 at 8:22 am

    Thank you! very usufeul information
  6. exoduso
    March 13th, 2010 at 10:16 pm

    I really like when people are expressing their opinion and thought. So I like the way you are writing
  7. sanda
    April 26th, 2010 at 4:36 pm

    I have a question. I have to set a value for the hidden field in the create action and then save the form. I am using the default processForm action and I think that while binding my setDefault is overwritten .Is it possible to somehow insert the value alongside the input data submitted by the user to the form ?
  8. Celso
    June 7th, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    Didnt work for new form.. to edit a form worked fine.

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