How to submit multiple forms of same type with one button in symfony2

Question

I have the todolist where i display three forms of task type

$task1 = new Task();
$form1 = $this->createForm(new MyForm('f1'), $task1);

$task2 = new Task('fo');
$form2 = $this->createForm(new MyForm('f2'), $task2);

$task3 = new Task();
$form3 = $this->createForm(new MyForm('f3'), $task3);

Now the problem is i have one submit button only . How can i persist these three tasks within one controller. and user can add more forms dynamically as well.

so what the way to solve this

Answer 1

Create a Form Model class — like TaskList — that holds a collection of Tasks. Then create TaskListType that holds a collection of TaskTypes. This way you'll have one form with as many tasks as you want.

Answer 2

For the sake of completeness find below a complete example.

You should create a new Model that represents the desired form. The point is that you probably don't want to affect Doctrine (eg. see doctrine:schema:update command). It might try to create a table for an entity that doesn't really exist. To avoid that, just put your model class under the Model folder (\src\Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Model\TaskList.php).

Assume that the following is your TaskType form class:

<?php

namespace Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Form;

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

class TaskType extends AbstractType
{
    /**
     * @param FormBuilderInterface $builder
     * @param array $options
     */
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder
            ->add('id', null, array('read_only' => true))
            ->add('name');
    }

    /**
     * @param OptionsResolverInterface $resolver
     */
    public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
    {
        $resolver->setDefaults(
            array(
                'data_class' => 'Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Entity\Task'
            )
        );
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getName()
    {
        return 'acme_demo_task';
    }
}

This should be your TaskList model class:

<?php

namespace Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Model;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;

/**
 * Class TaskList
 * @package Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Model
 *
 * @ORM\Entity()
 */
class TaskList
{
    /**
     * @var \Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection
     * @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="\Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Entity\Task")
     */
    private $tasks;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->tasks = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    /**
     * @param \Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Entity\Task $task
     * @return $this
     */
    public function addTask(\Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Entity\Task $task)
    {
        $this->tasks[] = $task;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @param \Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Entity\Task $task
     * @return $this
     */
    public function removeTask(\Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Entity\Task $task)
    {
        $this->tasks->remove($task);

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @return ArrayCollection
     */
    public function getTasks()
    {
        return $this->tasks;
    }

    /**
     * @param \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection $tasks
     * @return $this
     */
    public function setTasks(\Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection $tasks)
    {
        $this->tasks = $tasks;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * @param \Knp\Component\Pager\Pagination\PaginationInterface $pagination
     * @return $this
     */
    public function setFromPagination(\Knp\Component\Pager\Pagination\PaginationInterface $pagination)
    {
        foreach ($pagination as $task) {
            $this->addTask($task);
        }

        return $this;
    }
}

And find below the TaskListType class:

<?php

namespace Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Form;

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

class TaskListType extends AbstractType
{
    /**
     * @param FormBuilderInterface $builder
     * @param array $options
     */
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder
            ->add(
                'tasks',
                'collection',
                array(
                    'type' => new \Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Form\TaskType(),
                )
            )
            ->add('save', 'submit');
    }

    /**
     * @param OptionsResolverInterface $resolver
     */
    public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
    {
        $resolver->setDefaults(
            array(
                'data_class' => 'Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Model\TaskList'
            )
        );
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getName()
    {
        return 'acme_demo_task_list';
    }
}

And your services.yml (optional):

services:
    acme.demo.form.type.task_list:
        class: Acme\Bundle\DemoBundle\Form\TaskListType
        tags:
            - { name: form.type, alias: acme_demo_task_list }

And a sample controller:

public function indexAction($page)
{
    ini_set('xdebug.max_nesting_level', 300); // this might be useful with deeply nested forms

    $search = $this->getRequest()->get(
        'search',
        array(
            'name' => '',
            'date' => '',
            'lang' => $this->container->getParameter('acme_core.default_lang')
        )
    );

    /**
     * @var \Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager $em
     */
    $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

    $paginator = $this->get('knp_paginator');
    $pagination = $paginator->paginate(
        $em->getRepository('AcmeDemoBundle:Task')->getQueryFilteringByLangNameAndDate(
            $search['lang'],
            $search['name'],
            $search['date'] != '' ? new \DateTime($search['date']) : null
        ),
        $page,
        $this->getRequest()->get('elementsPerPage', 10)
    );

    $taskList = new TaskList();
    $taskList->setFromPagination($pagination);

    $form = $this->createForm('acme_demo_task_list', $taskList); // "acme_demo_task_list" has been defined in the services.yml file
    $form->handleRequest($this->getRequest());

    if ($form->isValid()) {
        foreach ($form->getData() as $task) {
            $em->merge($task);
        }
        $em->flush();
    }

    return $this->render(
        'AcmeDemoBundle:Task:index.html.twig',
        array(
            'search' => $search,
            'pagination' => $pagination,
            'form' => $form->createView()
        )
    );
}

I hope this helps!