Symfony2 Form ChoiceType External Datasource - php

Question

I have a form class with several ChoiceType fields that contain an array of options with a key:value pair. When the form is submitted the value is saved. However when I'm rendering the object I would like to show the Key value instead.
Example: 'Monthly' => '1month'. 1month is stored, prefer output to be Monthly.
I'm trying to avoid conditionals to check the value and changing the output to the key value.
I wasn't able to find any documentation about best practices for this sort of thing. I'm thinking about creating a service that stores all the choice options arrays and build a twig filter for changing the rendered output based on the array from the service.
Am I on the right track or is there an easier way?

Answer 1

I tried the service solution and got it working. I'm not sure if it is the most elegant or efficient way but it did the job. The form was a form class type and I injected a service that contained the choice arrays.
I created a choices.php class file inside my Form folder next to the formType file. It acts as a service where it returns the choices to the formType and a custom twig extension filter I created. The formType I had to set up as a service in order to inject the choices service.
/*choices.php*/
public function getChoices($choice)
{
$choices = array('paymentFrequency' => array('Monthly' => '1month',
'Bi-weekly' => '2weeks'),
'compounding' => array('Monthly' => 'monthly',
'Daily' => 'daily')
);
return $choices[$choice];
}
/*formType.php*/
->add('paymentFrequency', ChoiceType::class, array(
'label' => 'Payment Frequency:',
'choices' => $this->choicesService->getChoices('paymentFrequency'),
))
->add('compounding', ChoiceType::class, array(
'label' => 'Compounding:',
'choices' => $this->choicesService->getChoices('compounding'),
))
I then created a custom twig filter function where the choices service is injected into it.
/*twigExtension.php*/
public function renderChoicesFilter($value, $type)
{
$choices = $this->choicesService->getChoices($type);
return array_search($value, $choices);
}
/*twig template*/
{{ object.paymentFrequency|renderChoices('paymentFrequency') }}

Answer 2

You can create enumerator class and use it in your template, like so:
class MyChoicesEnum {
private static $choices = array(
'Monthly' => '1month',
'Quarterly' => '4month',
// etc...
);
public static function choices() {
return self::$choices;
}
}
Then you pass the class method result to template, in the returned array:
...
'form' => $form->createView()
'my_choices' => MyChoicesEnum::choices()
And in twig:
{{ my_choices.key }}