Getting the Request object¶

First, we’ll need Symfony’s Request object. To get this in a controller, add a $request argument that’s type-hinted with Symfony’s Request class:

// src/Yoda/UserBundle/Controller/RegisterController.php
// ...

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;

class RegisterController extends Controller
{
    // ...
    public function registerAction(Request $request)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Normally, if you have an argument here, Symfony tries to populate it from a routing wildcard with the same name as the variable. If it doesn’t find one, it throws a giant error. The only exception to that rule is this: if you type-hint an argument with the Request class, Symfony will give you that object. This doesn’t work for everything, only the Request class.

Using handleRequest¶

Use the form’s handleRequest method to actually process the data. Next, add an if statement that checks to see if the form was submitted and if all of the data is valid:

// src/Yoda/UserBundle/Controller/RegisterController.php

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
// ...

public function registerAction(Request $request)
{
    $form = $this->createFormBuilder()
        // ...
        ->getForm()
    ;

    $form->handleRequest($request);
    if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid()) {

        // do something in a moment
    }

    return array('form' => $form);
}

The handleRequest method grabs the POST’ed data from the request, processes it, and runs any validation. And actually, it only does this for POST requests so on a GET request, $form->isSubmitted() returns false.

If the form is submitted because it’s a POST request and passes validation, let’s just print the submitted data for now. If the form is invalid, or if this is a GET request, it’ll just skip this block and re-render the form with errors if there are any:

if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid()) {
    var_dump($form->getData());die;
}

Time to test it! We haven’t added validation yet, but the password fields have built-in validation if the values don’t match. When I submit, the form is re-rendered, meaning there was an error.

In fact, there’s now a little red box on the web debug toolbar. If we click it, we can see details about the form: what was submitted and options for each field.

Head back and fill in the form correctly. Now we see our dumped data:

array(
    'username' => string 'foo' (length=3),
    'email' => string 'foo@foo.com' (length=11),
    'password' => string 'foo' (length=3),
)

Using the Submitted Data Array¶

Notice that the data is an array with a key and value for each field. Let’s take this data and build a new User object from it. There is an easier way to do this, and I’ll show you in a second:

// src/Yoda/UserBundle/Controller/RegisterController.php

use Yoda\UserBundle\Entity\User;
// ...

$form->handleRequest($request);
if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid()) {
    $data = $form->getData();

    $user = new User();
    $user->setUsername($data['username']);
    $user->setEmail($data['email']);
}

// src/Yoda/UserBundle/Controller/RegisterController.php
// ...

private function encodePassword(User $user, $plainPassword)
{
    $encoder = $this->container->get('security.encoder_factory')
        ->getEncoder($user)
    ;

    return $encoder->encodePassword($plainPassword, $user->getSalt());
}

// src/Yoda/UserBundle/Controller/RegisterController.php
// ...

if ($form->isValid()) {
    $data = $form->getData();

    $user = new User();
    $user->setUsername($data['username']);
    $user->setEmail($data['email']);
    $user->setPassword($this->encodePassword($user, $data['password']));

    $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
    $em->persist($user);
    $em->flush();

    // we'll redirect the user next...
}

Redirecting after Success¶

The last step of any successful form submit is to redirect - we’ll redirect to the homepage. First, we need to generate a URL - just like we do with the path() function in Twig. In a controller, there’s a generateUrl function that works exactly the same way:

// src/Yoda/UserBundle/Controller/RegisterController.php
// ...

if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid()) {
    // ...

    $em->flush();

    $url = $this->generateUrl('event');
}

To redirect, use the redirect function and pass it the URL:

if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid()) {
    // ...
    $url = $this->generateUrl('event');

    return $this->redirect($url);
}

Remember that a controller always returns a Response object. redirect is just a shortcut to create a Response that’s all setup to redirect to this URL.

Ok, time to kick this proton torpedo! As expected, we end up on the homepage. We can even login as the new user!

You Don’t Need isSubmitted¶

Head back to the controller and remove the isSubmitted() call in the if statement:

// src/Yoda/UserBundle/Controller/RegisterController.php

$form->handleRequest($request);
if ($form->isValid()) {
    // ...
}

This actually doesn’t change anything because isValid() automatically returns false if the form wasn’t submitted - meaning, if the request isn’t a POST. So either just do this, or keep the isSubmitted part in there if you want - I find it adds some clarity.