Symfony Forms: HTML5 datalist

Question

How can be implemented HTML5 datalist with values from the database (Doctrine)?

Purpose: replace selects with many options to inputs with autocompletion.

Answer 1

In your formType :

->add('commerciaux', TextType::class,
            [
                'label'     => 'Apporteur d\'affaire*',
                'attr'      =>
                    [
                        'placeholder'   => 'Apporteur d\'affaire',
                        'list'          => 'bieres'           
                    ]
            ]
        )

In your View :

                    {{ form_row(formulaire.commerciaux) }}
                    <datalist id="bieres">
                        <option value="Meteor">
                        <option value="Pils">
                        <option value="Kronenbourg">
                        <option value="Grimbergen">
                    </datalist>

Answer 2

I spent some time trying to solve this issue, and there is a quite simple solution which solves Konstantin's issue with database access. It is to create a new form type which has EntityType as it's parent.

class DatalistType extends AbstractType
{
    public function getParent() {
        return EntityType::class;
    }
}

You can then create a new template for this widget:

{# views/form/fields.html.twig #}
{% block datalist_widget %}
    <input {{ block('widget_attributes') }} list="{{ form.vars.id }}_list" value="{{ form.vars.value }}" />
    <datalist id="{{ form.vars.id }}_list">
        {% for choice in choices %}
            <option>
                {{ choice.label }}
            </option>
        {% endfor %}
    </datalist>
{% endblock %}

Finally, in the buildForm function of the form you are building, you can add your form element using the DatalistType, and using the EntityType options.

$builder->add('fieldName', DatalistType::class ,
        array('required' => false, 
              'label' => 'fieldLabel', 
              'class' => 'AppBundle\Entity\EntityName',
              'choice_label' => 'entityField'))

Answer 3

First, add your new FormType for the field:.

<?php
// src/Acme/Form/Type/DatalistType
namespace Acme\Form\Type;

use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormView;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolverInterface;

class DatalistType extends AbstractType
{
    public function getParent()
    {
        return 'text';
    }

    public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
    {
        $resolver->setRequired(['choices']);
    }

    public function buildView(FormView $view, FormInterface $form, array $options)
    {
        $view->vars['choices'] = $options['choices'];
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return 'datalist';
    }
}

In services.yml:

form.type.datalist_type:
    class: Acme\Form\Type\DatalistType
    tags:
        -  { name: form.type, alias: datalist }

Do you have a form theme? If yes, skip to the next step, if no, create a new one in app/Resources/views/Form/fields.html.twig and change your default Twig theme to it:

# app/config/config.yml
twig:
    form_themes:
        - ':Form:fields.html.twig'

Now define a template for your new field in the form theme:

{% block datalist_widget %}
        <input list="{{ id }}_list" {{ block('widget_attributes') }}>
        <datalist id="{{ id }}_list">
            {% for choice in choices %}
                <option value="{{ choice }}"></option>
            {% endfor %}
        </datalist>
{% endblock %}

Use your field in FormType:

public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
{
    $builder->add('country', 'datalist', [choices' => ['a', 'b']]); 
}

Instead of ['a', 'b'] You need to load your choices from DB somehow, I'd suggest passing them in form options as the easiest solution.