Two form fields into one entity value - symfony

Question

How its possible to join two separated fields (must be separated) in one form (date and time for example) to one entity propery datetime for persisting after form post ?
What is better way ? Data Transofmers ? Form events ? Form Model ? Manual setting all entity properties before persist ?
Entity:
<?php namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
/**
* #ORM\Entity
* #ORM\Table(name="event")
*/
class EventEntity
{
/**
* #ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer", nullable=false)
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="IDENTITY")
*/
private $id;
// ...
/**
* #ORM\Column(name="date_time", type="datetime", nullable=false)
*/
protected $datetime;
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
// ...
public function getDateTime()
{
return $this->datetime;
}
public function setDateTime(\DateTime $datetime)
{
$this->datetime = $datetime;
}
}
FormType:
<?php namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Form\Type;
use JMS\DiExtraBundle\Annotation as DI;
use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolverInterface;
class EventType extends AbstractType
{
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$builder
// ...
->add('date', 'date', [
'required' => true,
'widget' => 'single_text',
'format' => 'dd.MM.yyyy'
]
)
->add('time', 'time', [
'required' => false,
'widget' => 'single_text'
]
);
}
public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
{
$resolver->setDefaults(array(
'data_class' => 'Acme\DemoBundle\Entity\EventEntity' //Acme\DemoBundle\Form\Model\EventModel ?
));
}
public function getName()
{
return 'event';
}
}

Answer 1

If you set the date and time widget seperately in the datetime type, then they get seperately rendered, but validated as one field.
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$builder->add('datetime', 'datetime', array(
'date_widget' => 'single_text',
'time_widget' => 'single_text',
'date_format' => 'dd.MM.yyyy',
));
}

Answer 2

I suggest using Pazis solution, since this is the most simple one. But that would also be a perfect job for a DataTransformer:
class MyDataTransformer implements DataTransformerInterface
{
public function transform($value)
{
if (null === $value)
return;
if ($value instanceof \DateTime)
return array(
'date' => $value->format('d.m.Y'),
'time' => $value->format('H:i:s')
);
return null;
}
public function reverseTransform($value)
{
if (null === $value)
return null;
if (is_array($value) && array_key_exists('date', $value) && array_key_exists('time', $value))
return new \DateTime($value['date'] . ' ' . $value['time']);
return null;
}
}
This has the drawback, that you'd need to map every single value in your entity with this transformer, what - for sure - you don't want to. But with small form-tricks, this can be avoided. Therefore you add a subform to your form, which includes a date and a time field and the added Transformer. You'll need to map ("property_path"-option) your DateTime object to this subform or just name it "correctly", so the form framework can map it by name.
public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
$builder->add(
$builder->create('datetime', 'form')
->add('date', 'date', $optionsForDate)
->add('time', 'time', $optionsForTime)
->addViewTransformer(new MyDataTransformer())
);
}
The code may not be perfectly running, but i hope the idea behind splitting one entity property into two (or more) form fields is clear.

Answer 3

héhé, that's a good question.
I would choose the easiest, most generic, reusable solution.
I wouldn't implement methods on my model just for sake of form mapping, but if it makes sense, why not simply using the model api ?
<?php
class EventEntity
{
// assume $this->datetime is initialized and instance of DateTime
public function setDate(\DateTime $date)
{
// i don't know if this works!
$this->datetime->add($this->datetime->diff($date));
}
public function setTime(\DateTime $date)
{
$this->datetime->add($this->datetime->diff($date));
}
}