Symfony2: How to modify the current user's entity using a form?

Question

I am trying to add a simple form to allow my users to edit their profile. My problem is:

Since the entity "linked" to the form is the same as the current user object ($user === $entity, see below), if the form validation fails, then the view is rendered with the modified user object (ie. with values of the non-valid form).

Here my (classic) controller:

public function profileAction()
{
    $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getEntityManager();

    $user = $this->get('security.context')->getToken()->getUser();
    $entity = $em->getRepository('AcmeSecurityBundle:User')->find($user->id);
    // $user === $entity => true

    $form = $this->createForm(new ProfileType(), $entity);

    $request = $this->getRequest();

    if ($request->getMethod() === 'POST')
    {
        $form->bindRequest($request);

        if ($form->isValid()) {
            $em->persist($entity);
            $em->flush();

            return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('profile'));
        }
    }

    return $this->render('AcmeSecurityBundle:User:profile.html.twig', array(
        'entity'      => $entity,
        'form'   => $form->createView(),
    ));
}

So I wondered how to have two distincts objects $user and $entity. I used clone() and it worked well for the view rendering part (the $user object was not modified), but it created a new record in database instead of updating the old one.

PS: I know I should use FOSUserBundle. But I would really like to understand my mistake here :)

Guillaume Algis · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-22 23:39:57Z

I used the same solution as FOSUserBundle, which is calling $em->refresh() on my entity when the form validation fails:

public function profileAction()
{
    $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getEntityManager();

    $user = $this->get('security.context')->getToken()->getUser();
    $entity = $em->getRepository('AcmeSecurityBundle:User')->find($user->id);

    if (!$entity) {
        throw $this->createNotFoundException('Unable to find User entity.');
    }

    $form = $this->createForm(new ProfileType(), $entity);

    $request = $this->getRequest();

    if ($request->getMethod() === 'POST')
    {
        $form->bindRequest($request);

        if ($form->isValid()) {
            $em->persist($entity);
            $em->flush();

            return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('profile'));
        }

        $em->refresh($user); // Add this line
    }

    return $this->render('AcmeSecurityBundle:User:profile.html.twig', array(
        'entity'      => $entity,
        'form'   => $form->createView(),
    ));
}

Note that if you are using what is called a "virtual" field in "How to handle File Uploads with Doctrine" (in my case "picture_file" you will need to clear it by hand:

$em->refresh($user);
$user->picture_file = null; // here

Neysor · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-22 22:21:53Z

1

One approach would be to always redirect:

    if ($form->isValid()) {
        $em->persist($entity);
        $em->flush();
    }
    return $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('profile'));

Of course you lose error messages and changes.

Another approach would be to define an entity manager just for your UserProvider. $user would no longer be the same as $entity. Bit of extra overhead but it certainly makes the problem go and would prevent similar interactions with other forms that might modify all or part of an user entity.

In a similar fashion, you reduce the overhead by creating an entity manager just for your profile form. With this method, the overhead would only be incurred when editing the profile.

Finally, you could ask yourself if it really mattered that the display data was not quite right in this particular case. Would it really bother anything? Would anyone notice but you?

See How to work with Multiple Entity Managers in Symfony Cookbook

Another idea is to clone your user entity in your user provider. This will divorce it from the entity manager.

You could also use $entityManager->detach($user); to remove the user from the entity manager.

And why is the token user an entity anyways? Consider making a completely independent User class with minimal information pulled from the database by your user provider. That is what I do.

edited Mar 22, 2012 at 22:21

Neysor

3,91511 gold badges36 silver badges67 bronze badges

answered Mar 21, 2012 at 21:32

Cerad

49k9 gold badges92 silver badges94 bronze badges

1 Comment

Guillaume Algis Over a year ago

The redirect solution is not satisfying for me as I want to display errors to my users (and displaying wrong data is a problem too). The others solutions might work but they seem a little too complicated for what I want, see my answer for the solution I used. Anyway, thank @Cerad for your help.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Symfony2: How to modify the current user's entity using a form?

2 Answers 2

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related