How can I access a related object in a form being displayed in Symfony 1.4

Question

I have a need to display a form to enter a blog post on the same page on which a news story is being displayed. The user is entering a blog post related to the story.

In my blog form I'm currently doing this to get the id of the story being displayed:

public function configure()
{
    $this->setWidget('image_filename', new sfWidgetFormInputFileEditable(array(
    'file_src'    => '/uploads/blogpost_images/thumbnails/thumb_'.$this->getObject()->image_filename, //displayed for existing photos
    'edit_mode'   => !$this->isNew(),
    'is_image'    => true,
    'with_delete' => false,

    )));

    $this->setValidator('image_filename', new sfValidatorFile(array(
      'mime_types' => 'web_images',
      'required' => $this->isNew(),
      'path' => sfConfig::get('sf_upload_dir').'/blogpost_images',
      'validated_file_class' => 'BlogPostValidatedFile',
    )));
    $this->setValidator('url', new sfValidatorUrl(array('required' => true)));
    $this->setValidator('title', new sfValidatorString(array('required' => true)));

    $this->setWidget('user_id', new sfWidgetFormInputHidden(array(),array(
        'value'=>sfContext::getInstance()->getUser()->getId())
            ));

    // get the request params to access the notice ID and pass it back to the form for
    // saving with the blog post

    $params = sfContext::getInstance()->getRequest()->getParameterHolder();

    $this->setWidget('notice_id', 
            new sfWidgetFormInputHidden(array(),array(
                'value'=>$params->get('id'))
                    ));

    $this->removeFields();


}

Is there a cleaner way of doing this? It feels hacky to be taking the id of the notice (news story) from the request parameters.

UPDATE

I'm actually posting the form from a modal dialog via ajax and trying to maintain the notice_id value across requests. I am binding my parameters with the form before returning it to display errors:

  public function executeModal(sfWebRequest $request) {

  if ($request->isXmlHttpRequest()) {
    //return $this->renderText('test'.$request->getParameterHolder()->getAll());
    $params = $request->getParameter('nb_blog_post');
    $form = new nbBlogPostForm(null,array('notice_id',$request->getPostParameter('notice_id')));

    $form->bind($params,$request->getFiles());


    if ($form->isValid()) {
      $nb_blog_post = $form->save();
      $this->getUser()->setFlash('notice', 'Your blog post was successfully created');
      $this->redirect('@noticeboard');

    } else {
      return $this->renderPartial('form',array('form'=>$form,'form_id'=>'blogpost'));
    }
  }


  }

I can't seem to get the notice_id to be bound with the form (it is a hidden field). The other values are binding fine.

I've also tried $form = new nbBlogPostForm(null,array('notice_id',$request->getPostParameter('nb_blog_post[notice_id]')));

FURTHER UPDATE

On the first pass through the form configure method relies on the notice_id being in the request, I think it was setting this to null when the form was created again via ajax. This fixes it:

   $params = sfContext::getInstance()->getRequest()->getParameterHolder();
    if (($params->get('id'))) {
    $this->setWidget('notice_id', 
            new sfWidgetFormInputHidden(array(),array(
                'value'=>$params->get('id'))
                    ));
    } else {
          $this->setWidget('notice_id', 
            new sfWidgetFormInputHidden());

    }

If anyone has a cleaner way please let me know.

LuisClemente LuisClemente · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-20T17:11:38

The correct way is:

$form = new YourForm(null,array('notice_id' => $notice_id));

As you mentioned the first parameter must be an object so null is given, the second parameter should contain the variables to be passed to the form

UPDATE

With the new info provided. You have two options, first one:

Create a new method inside your form like this:

public function setNoticeId($id){
$this->getWidget('notice_id')->setAttribute('value'),$id);
}

Then call it after the creation of the form within your action:

$this->form = new Form();
$this->form->setNoticeId($id);

The second one is not to set the notice id when you display the form but pass such parameter within create action in the way I mentioned before:

public function executeCreate(sfWebRequest $request)
{
$this->form = new Form(null, array('notice_id'=>$id));
$this->processForm($request,$this->form);

}

Then you have to use it inside your form save method (at the beggining) and assign it to the desired field like this:

$this->values['notice_id'] = $this->getOption('notice_id');

The firs method is cleaner but the latter is useful when you need some data that is not related to your object, for example, if you need to save an image with your post inside the user's folder and you need the name of such user folder.

I hope this helps.

How can I access a related object in a form being displayed in Symfony 1.4

2 Answers