Overriding Form Variables¶

Open up register.html.twig. Remember that attr variable we have access to in our form theme blocks? We can override that variable, or any other, right when we render the field. Give the username field a clever class:

{# src/Yoda/UserBundle/Resources/views/Register/register.html.twig #}
{# ... #}

{{ form_row(form.username, {
    'attr': { 'class': 'a-clever-class' }
}) }}

Refresh and inspect the field to see the class. In addition to the trick I showed you earlier, Symfony has a reference page called Twig Template Form Function and Variable Reference that lists most of these variables. Really you can customize almost anything when rendering a field.

Adding a Help Feature¶

I want to be able to add a little bit of help text beneath any form field. I’ll open form_theme.html.twig and just hardcode a message in so you can see what I mean:

{# app/Resources/views/form_theme.html.twig #}
{# ... #}

{% block form_row %}
    <div class="form-group {{ errors|length > 0 ? 'has-error' : '' }}">
        {{ form_label(form) }}
        {{ form_errors(form) }}
        {{ form_widget(form) }}

        <div class="help-block">This is the field you're looking for.</div>
    </div>
{% endblock form_row %}

I know - it’s pointless so far. The same message shows up for every field. How can we customize this?

Inventing a New Form Variable¶

Why not just pass in a new variable? Go back to register.html.twig and add a help variable to the username field:

{# src/Yoda/UserBundle/Resources/views/Register/register.html.twig #}
{# ... #}

{{ form_row(form.username, {
    'attr': { 'class': 'the-username-field' },
    'help': 'Choose something unique and clever'
}) }}

In normal Symfony, there is no help variable - I totally just made that up. But even though it doesn’t normally exist, it is being passed into the form theme blocks. So use it!

{# app/Resources/views/form_theme.html.twig #}
{# ... #}

{% block form_row %}
    <div class="form-group {{ errors|length > 0 ? 'has-error' : '' }}">
        {{ form_label(form) }}
        {{ form_errors(form) }}
        {{ form_widget(form) }}

        <div class="help-block">{{ help }}</div>
    </div>
{% endblock form_row %}

Alright, time to try it. Woh, BIG error:

Variable “help” does not exist in kernel.root_dir/Resources/views/form_theme.html.twig at line 9

I promise, I wasn’t lying! The problem is that the other fields like email and password aren’t passing in this variable, so we need to code defensively in the block. Add an if statement to make sure the variable is defined and actually set to some real value:

{# app/Resources/views/form_theme.html.twig #}
{# ... #}

{% block form_row %}
    <div class="form-group {{ errors|length > 0 ? 'has-error' : '' }}">
        {{ form_label(form) }}
        {{ form_errors(form) }}
        {{ form_widget(form) }}

        {% if help is defined and help %}
            <div class="help-block">{{ help }}</div>
        {% endif %}
    </div>
{% endblock form_row %}

Try it again. It works! We can pass in a help variable to any field on any form to use this.

FormView: Customizing Form Variables from your Form Type¶

Ok, but one more challenge. Could we set this help message from inside our form class?

Open up RegisterFormType. The buildForm method adds the fields and setDefaultOptions does exactly that. To customize the form variables directly, create a third method called finishView. I’ll use my IDE to generate this for me. Don’t forget the use statements for FormView and FormInterface:

// src/Yoda/UserBundle/Form/RegisterFormType.php
// ...
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormView;
// ...

public function finishView(FormView $view, FormInterface $form, array $options)
{

}

This method is called right before we start rendering the form. We can use the FormView object to change any variable on any field. Use it to add a help message to the email field:

// src/Yoda/UserBundle/Form/RegisterFormType.php
// ...

public function finishView(FormView $view, FormInterface $form, array $options)
{
    $view['email']->vars['help'] = 'Hint: it will have an @ symbol';
}

Refresh! Yep, you’re one dangerous form customizer.