Symfony 2 Access entity data for formtype

Question

I am making my own login application with Symfony2 and I am new at Symfony. I know that I have the FOSUserBundle at my disposal, but I'm trying to learn security on my own first.

My access control defines 3 role: ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN, ROLE_ADMIN and ROLE_USER. In addition the defined roles have other roles associated with them, such as ROLE_ADMIN_VIEW_USERS

I am NOT using the security.context service on entity.roles to map my roles from the entity because I only want to effect ROLE_ADMIN and ROLE_USER. Upon registration every user is given the role ROLE_USER. When a user with ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN views edit page for a user or admin I am trying to put in a checkbox that says 'Make this User an Admin'. If they already have ROLE_ADMIN in the entity getRoles, the box would be checked.

If the box is checked I do this in the action

    if ($editForm->isValid()) {
            $role = ( 'ROLE_ADMIN' === $editForm->get('role')->getViewData())
                    ? "ROLE_ADMIN"
                    : "ROLE_USER";
            $entity->setRoles(array($role));
            $em->flush();

            return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('admin_new_edit', array('id' => $id)));
        }

So my question is: How do I check the box if in the entity getRoles() is ROLE_ADMIN? Remember as stated above roles is mapped in the entity, but role is not. I don't want to use roles from the mapped entity because there are several values from the security service that I don't want to use.

    $builder
        ->add('username', 'text')
        ->add('password', 'password')
        ->add('email', 'email')
        ->add('role', 'choice', array(
            'mapped' => false,
            'label' => 'Make Admin',
            'value' => 'ROLE_ADMIN',
            'required' => false,
            //show following attribute only if entity getRoles is ROLE_ADMIN
            //how do i get the value from the entity?
            'attr' => array('checked'=>'checked'),
            ))

So the problem you have then is determining if the currently edit viewable User entity has the ROLE_ADMIN set (using User.getRoles()), so the checkbox is defaulted to checked or not checked? — Jared Farrish
And the problem is User.getRoles() will give you something like {"roles":["ROLE_USER","ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN","ROLE_ADMIN "]} in return? So the raw return of getRoles() isn't telling you if ROLE_ADMIN is set because it's actually giving you a JSON string of all roles? Why don't you add a User.isAdmin() method that gives you that information by getting the data from User.getRoles(), reading it, and checking for the ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN or ROLE_ADMIN roles in the list? — Jared Farrish
Actually @JaredFarrish that is an excelent observation, and that is something that I have already taken care of on submission of the create form. The getRoles will show either one of my three roles, but not all of them. I plan to not make the form editable at all for other super admins and have me be the one to set up who the superadmins are as there would only be 1 or 2. Trying to conform to best practices and not use in_memory for super admin, which btw could help with my problem. Don't want to add isAdmin to Entity because I use the entity for several forms. — Rick Mason
When you say you don't want to add isAdmin to Entity, what is the entity you're referring? User? — Jared Farrish

LorenzSchaef LorenzSchaef · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-23T13:39:03

My suggestion would be something like this:

->add('role', 'choice', array(
            'mapped' => true,
            'label' => 'Make Admin',
            'multiple' => true,
            'expanded' => true,
            'choices' => array('ROLE_ADMIN' => 'Yes')
            'required' => false,
            ))

The value should automatically be taken from the entity if it has a property called "roles", just like for your other fields. You can also add other roles to the choices array and you will get a checkbox for each of them.

I didn't test it however, I hope it works.

Symfony 2 Access entity data for formtype

1 Answers