Symfony and Doctrine memory forms

I am assuming you are using a type entity

in your form. They are quite heavy, as at first all objects are selected as objects and then reduced to some style id => label

.

So you can write your own type entityChoice

that works with id => label

-array (so nothing will be selected as an object in the frist place) and add a DataTransformer for that type:

use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolverInterface;

use MyNamespace\EntityToIdTransformer;

class EntityChoiceType extends AbstractType
{
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder->addModelTransformer(new EntityToIdTransformer($options['repository']));
    }

    public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
    {
        $resolver->setDefaults(array(
            'empty_value' => false,
            'empty_data'  => null,
        ));

        $resolver->setRequired(array(
            'repository'
        ));
    }

    public function getParent()
    {
        return 'choice';
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return 'entityChoice';
    }
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

And as a DataTransformer:

use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;
use Symfony\Component\Form\DataTransformerInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Exception\TransformationFailedException;

class EntityToIdTransformer implements DataTransformerInterface
{
    private $entityRepository;

    public function __construct(EntityRepository $entityRepository)
    {
        $this->entityRepository = $entityRepository;
    }

    /**
     * @param object|array $entity
     * @return int|int[]
     *
     * @throws TransformationFailedException
     */
    public function transform($entity)
    {
        if ($entity === null) {
           return null;
        }
        elseif (is_array($entity) || $entity instanceof \Doctrine\ORM\PersistentCollection) {
            $ids = array();
            foreach ($entity as $subEntity) {
                $ids[] = $subEntity->getId();
            }

            return $ids;
        }
        elseif (is_object($entity)) {
            return $entity->getId();
        }

        throw new TransformationFailedException((is_object($entity)? get_class($entity) : '').'('.gettype($entity).') is not a valid class for EntityToIdTransformer');
    }

    /**
     * @param int|array $id
     * @return object|object[]
     *
     * @throws TransformationFailedException
     */
    public function reverseTransform($id)
    {
        if ($id === null) {
            return null;
        }
        elseif (is_numeric($id)) {
            $entity = $this->entityRepository->findOneBy(array('id' => $id));

            if ($entity === null) {
                throw new TransformationFailedException('A '.$this->entityRepository->getClassName().' with id #'.$id.' does not exist!');
            }

            return $entity;
        }
        elseif (is_array($id)) {

            if (empty($id)) {
                return array();
            }

            $entities = $this->entityRepository->findBy(array('id' => $id)); // its array('id' => array(...)), resulting in many entities!!

            if (count($id) != count($entities)) {
                throw new TransformationFailedException('Some '.$this->entityRepository->getClassName().' with ids #'.implode(', ', $id).' do not exist!');
            }

            return $entities;
        }

        throw new TransformationFailedException(gettype($id).' is not a valid type for EntityToIdTransformer');
    }
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

Finally, register the FormType as a new Type in service.yml

services:
    myNamespace.form.type.entityChoice:
        class: MyNamespace\EntityChoiceType
        tags:
            - { name: form.type, alias: entityChoice }

      

        
        
        
      

    

Then you can use it in your form like

$formBuilder->add('appliance', 'entityChoice', array(
    'label'       => 'My Label',
    'repository'  => $repository,
    'choices'     => $repository->getLabelsById(),
    'multiple'    => false,
    'required'    => false,
    'empty_value' => '(none)',
))

      

        
        
        
      

    

with $repository

as an instance of your desired repository and 'choices'

as an array withid => label