Bootstrap 3: formatted checkboxes with Symfony & Twig

Question

How to create a formatted group of checkboxes as described in the Bootstrap documentation using the Symfony Form Factory and Twig?

Using something like

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-lg-4">
    {{ form_label(form.sample) }}
  </div>
  <div class="col-lg-8">
    {{ form_widget(form.sample) }}
  </div>
</div>

will not result in the needed output:

a) each checkbox within a Bootstrap 3 structure like:

<div class="radio">
  <label>
    <input type="radio" ... />Option one
  </label>
</div>

b) in addition the ability to output the checkboxes in two or more columns if needed:

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-lg-6 col-md-6">
    <div class="radio"> ... </div>
  </div>
  <div class="col-lg-6 col-md-6">
    <div class="radio"> ... </div>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 1

The proper way to do this is to create your own form theme. I will not write the whole thing here, but what matters to you are those:

{% block choice_widget_expanded %}
{% spaceless %}
    <div {{ block('widget_container_attributes') }} class="my-form-choices">
    {% for child in form %}
        {{ form_widget(child) }}
    {% endfor %}
    </div>
{% endspaceless %}
{% endblock choice_widget_expanded %}

{% block checkbox_widget %}
{% spaceless %}
    <div class="checkbox">
        <label for="{{ id }}"><input type="checkbox" {{ block('widget_attributes') }}{% if value is defined %} value="{{ value }}"{% endif %}{% if checked %} checked="checked"{% endif %} />{{ label|trans({}, translation_domain) }}</label>
    </div>
{% endspaceless %}
{% endblock checkbox_widget %}

I removed the label rendering from the choice_widget_expanded so I could have the checkbox inside the label tag, just like what you have in your solution. But you can basically do whatever you want in your form theme. You can also overwrite radio_widget if you want to.

If you look closely at the div around the checkboxes, I gave it the class "my-form-choices". You could give it the classes you want. It could be "col-lg-8", like you have, but for me, it makes more sense to have a generic class name, and then use mixins in your own less file. Your less file would look like this:

@import '../../../../../../vendor/twitter/bootstrap/less/bootstrap.less';

.my-form-row {
    .make-row();
}

.my-form-choices {
    .make-lg-column(8);
}

.my-form-row-label {
    .make-lg-column(4);
}

But that's up to you. You don't have to do this if you don't want to. Finally, you use your theme by starting the twig for your page like this:

{% extends 'MyOwnBundle::layout.html.twig' %}
{% form_theme form 'MyOwnBundle:Component:formtype.html.twig' %}

And you display the row simply like that (the field I used in my test is availability, yours is sample):

{{ form_row(form.availability) }}

I've tried that (with Symfony 2.4), and it works. The output is something like that:

<div class="my-form-row">
    <div class="my-form-row-label">
        <label class="required">Availability</label>
    </div>
    <div class="my-form-choices" id="myown_website_contactmessage_availability">
        <div class="checkbox">
            <label for="myown_website_contactmessage_availability_0">
                <input type="checkbox" value="morning" name="myown_website_contactmessage[availability][]" id="myown_website_contactmessage_availability_0">
                Morning
            </label>
        </div>
        <div class="checkbox">
            <label for="myown_website_contactmessage_availability_1">
                <input type="checkbox" value="afternoon" name="myown_website_contactmessage[availability][]" id="myown_website_contactmessage_availability_1">
                Afternoon
            </label>
        </div>
        <div class="checkbox">
            <label for="myown_website_contactmessage_availability_2">
                <input type="checkbox" value="evening" name="myown_website_contactmessage[availability][]" id="myown_website_contactmessage_availability_2">
                Evening
            </label>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Also notice that I do not have sub-rows, like you have in your solution. In fact, your solution goes beyond the question you were asking in the first place.

EDIT: here's a solution for having multiple columns

To have multiple columns, here is a quick solution. First, the form theme could be something like this:

{% block choice_widget_expanded %}
{% spaceless %}
    <div class="my-form-choices-container">
        <div {{ block('widget_container_attributes') }} class="my-form-choices">
        {% for child in form %}
            {{ form_widget(child) }}
        {% endfor %}
        </div>
    </div>
{% endspaceless %}
{% endblock choice_widget_expanded %}

{% block checkbox_widget %}
{% spaceless %}
    <div class="my-form-choice">
        <div class="checkbox">
            <label for="{{ id }}"><input type="checkbox" {{ block('widget_attributes') }}{% if value is defined %} value="{{ value }}"{% endif %}{% if checked %} checked="checked"{% endif %} />{{ label|trans({}, translation_domain) }}</label>
        </div>
    </div>
{% endspaceless %}
{% endblock checkbox_widget %}

And then your less file would look like this:

@import '../../../../../../vendor/twitter/bootstrap/less/bootstrap.less';

.my-form-row {
    .make-row();
}

.my-form-row-label {
    .make-lg-column(4);
}

.my-form-choices-container {
    .make-lg-column(8);
}

.my-form-choices {
    .make-row();
}

.my-form-choice {
    .make-md-column(6);
}

In this solution, you change the number of columns by changing the size of the columns. The cells should stack neatly. In this case, it is better to compile less (I won't explain that here). I have tried this solution, and it works well. The advantage of using less in this case, is that you can use the same form theme on multiple pages, and change the number of columns just by having a different "less" file for each of your pages.