Handling dd/mm/yyyy format in symfon2/Doctrine - symfony

Question

What should happen here is this:
Only dd/mm/yyyy format will be accepted for DOB.
If different format given then "The DoB field must have a valid format." message should read on the screen BUT this message should be coming from the ENTITY, not form TYPE set with 'invalid_message' attribute.
JFYI: I can define $dob as 'string' in the entity and as 'text' in the form type to make whole process work but it is not good practise. The reason is I don't want varchar field for $dob in database, I want date field.
PERSON ENTITY (Note: This is the only place I want form validation takes place):
namespace Se\HirBundle\Entity;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* Person
*
* #ORM\Entity
* #ORM\Table(name="person")
* #ORM\HasLifecycleCallbacks
*/
class Person
{
/**
* #var integer $id
*
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\Column(type="integer")
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
protected $id;
/**
* #var string $firstname
*
* #Assert\NotBlank(message = "The Firstname field should not be blank.")
* #Assert\Length(max = "100", maxMessage = "The Firstname field cannot be longer than {{ limit }} characters length.")
*
* #ORM\Column(type = "string", length = 100)
*/
protected $firstname;
/**
* #var date $dob
*
* #Assert\NotBlank(message = "The DoB field should not be blank.")
* #Assert\Regex(pattern = "/^(0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])[\/\-](0[1-9]|1[012])[\/\-]\d{4}$/", message = "The DoB field must have a valid format.")
*
* #ORM\Column(type = "date", length = 10)
*/
protected $dob;
/**
* #var datetime $created
*
* #ORM\Column(type="datetime")
*/
protected $created;
/**
* #var datetime $updated
*
* #ORM\Column(type="datetime", nullable = true)
*/
protected $updated;
/**
* Gets triggered only on insert
*
* #ORM\PrePersist
*/
public function onPrePersist()
{
$this->created = new \DateTime("now");
}
/**
* Gets triggered every time on update
*
* #ORM\PreUpdate
*/
public function onPreUpdate()
{
$this->updated = new \DateTime("now");
}
/**
* Get id
*
* #return integer
*/
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
/**
* Set firstname
*
* #param string $firstname
* #return Person
*/
public function setFirstname($firstname)
{
$this->firstname = $firstname;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get firstname
*
* #return string
*/
public function getFirstname()
{
return $this->firstname;
}
/**
* Set dob
*
* #param string $dob
* #return Person
*/
public function setDob($dob)
{
$this->dob = $dob;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get dob
*
* #return string
*/
public function getDob()
{
return $this->dob;
}
}
Form TYPE file:
namespace Se\HirBundle\Form\Type\Person;
use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolverInterface;
class CreateType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$builder
->setAction($options['action'])
->setMethod('POST')
->add('firstname', 'text',
array('label' => 'Firstname', 'error_bubbling' => true))
->add('dob', 'date',
array('label' => 'DoB', 'widget' => 'single_text',
'format' => 'dd/MM/yyyy', 'input' => 'datetime', 'error_bubbling' => true))
->add('create', 'submit',
array('label' => 'Create Person'));
}
public function getName()
{
return 'personcreate';
}
public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
{
$resolver->setDefaults(array('data_class' => 'Se\HirBundle\Entity\Person'));
}
}
CONTROLLER:
namespace Se\HirBundle\Controller;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
use Se\HirBundle\Entity\Person;
use Se\HirBundle\Form\Type\Person\CreateType;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
class CrudController extends Controller
{
public function createAction()
{
$person = new Person();
$form = $this->createForm(new CreateType(), $person,
array('action' => $this->generateUrl('create_submit')));
return $this->render('SeHirBundle:Default:create.html.twig',
array('page' => 'Create', 'form' => $form->createView()));
}
public function createPersonAction(Request $request)
{
if ($request->getMethod() != 'POST')
{
return new Response('Only POST method is accepted');
}
$person = new Person();
$form = $this->createForm(new CreateType(), $person,
array('action' => $this->generateUrl('create_submit')));
$form->handleRequest($request);
if ($form->isValid())
{
$submission = $form->getData();
$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
$person = new Person();
$person->setFirstname($submission->getFirstname());
$person->setDob($submission->getDob());
$em->persist($person);
$em->flush();
$this->get('session')->getFlashBag()->add('message', 'Person successfully created!');
return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('message'));
}
return $this->render('SeHirBundle:Default:create.html.twig',
array('page' => 'Create', 'form' => $form->createView()));
}
}
TWIG:
{% extends '::base.html.twig' %}
{% block title %}{{ page }}{% endblock %}
{% block body %}
<b>{{ page|upper }}</b>
<hr />
{{ form_start(form, {attr: {novalidate:'novalidate'}}) }}
{% if form_errors(form) != '' %}
<div>{{ form_errors(form) }}</div>
{% endif %}
<div>
{{ form_label(form.firstname) }}
{{ form_widget(form.firstname) }}
</div>
<div>
{{ form_label(form.dob) }}
{{ form_widget(form.dob, {'type':'text'}) }}
</div>
<br />
<div>
{{ form_widget(form.create) }}
</div>
{{ form_end(form)}}
{% endblock %}

Answer 1

Here is a solution based on the Symfony2 documentation:
Controller
Start of the file
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
Function in the controller
This controller will display the dob field, since this is a Datetime object it requires to use format() in order to display it. This is just an example to show that Symfony2 recognizes the date and transform it internally.
Uncommenting the lines starting with // would be sufficient to persist the Person entity with the dob.
public function testAction(Request $request)
{
$person = new Person();
$form = $this->createFormBuilder($person)
->add('dob', 'date',
array(
'label' => 'DoB',
'widget' => 'single_text',
'format' => 'dd/MM/yyyy',
'invalid_message' => 'Validation error goes here',
'error_bubbling' => true,
'input' => 'datetime' # return a Datetime object (*)
)
)
->getForm();
$form->handleRequest($request);
if ($form->isValid()) {
# perform some action, such as saving the task to the database
//$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
//$em->persist($person);
//$em->flush();
return new Response($person->getDob()->format('d-m-Y'));
}
return $this->render(
'YourBundle:Default:test.html.twig',
array(
'form' => $form->createView()
)
);
}
(*): http://symfony.com/fr/doc/master/reference/forms/types/date.html#input
Twig file
{{ form(form) }}
routing.yml
test:
pattern: /test/
defaults: { _controller: YourBundle:Default:test }

Answer 2

SOLUTION in Controller:
$dob = date('Y-m-d', strtotime(str_replace('/', '-', $submission->getDob())));
$person->setDob($dob);