Cannot both disable entity field and retain its value - php

Question

In a form event, setting a field 'attr' => array('readonly' => 'readonly') is rendered as "disabled" = "1". This is not the desired effect. A disabled select field persists a null value on submit. A readonly field should retain and persist the displayed value. Or so I thought. So how to get the value to remain unchanged and unchangeable?
Edit;
A hidden field does not do the trick. choice_attr does not help either.
I'm voting to close this question. I've not discovered any method for displaying a disabled entity field and also retain the value. If you've got any idea on how that's done...
An example (in Symfony 2.8.3):
The Household entity has six attributes, each of which is an entity in a OneToMany relationship to Household. (The application has other entities which have similar attributes.) The Housing entity/attribute of Household has two properties: housing and enabled. The application's client can set a property to enabled = no if they no longer intend to track that property.
If a property is set to enabled = no its availability in a new or edit Household form is readily eliminated by including a where clause in the entity field's query builder, e.g., ->where("h.enabled=1"). However, doing so causes the disabled property to be set to null. Thus the need for retaining the value somehow.
The ideal solution would be a service for these attribute entity fields that would both display values and retain if enabled is no.
I have tried using an event listener, a hidden field, choice_attr, modifying the form template and the form theme all to no avail. For example, a hidden field is text when an entity field is required. This doesn't mean it can't be done, only that I haven't stumbled on the proper method.

Answer 1

The eventual solution: a service using Doctrine metadata to get disabled entity fields, form class modifications, and, for ManyToMany relationships, some jquery and invisible template entry.
Service functions:
/**
* Create array of disabled fields of an entity object
*
* #param type $object
* #return array
*/
public function getDisabledOptions($object) {
$values = [];
$className = get_class($object);
$metaData = $this->em->getClassMetadata($className);
foreach ($metaData->associationMappings as $field => $mapping) {
if (8 > $mapping['type']) {
$fieldName = ucfirst($field);
$method = 'get' . $fieldName;
if (method_exists($object->$method(), 'getEnabled') && false === $object->$method()->getEnabled()) {
$values[] = $fieldName;
}
}
}
$manyToMany = json_decode($this->getMetaData($object), true);
foreach(array_keys($manyToMany) as $key) {
$values[] = $key;
}
return $values;
}
/**
* Get array of disabled ManyToMany options
*
* #param Object $object
* #return array
*/
public function getMetaData($object) {
$data = array();
$className = get_class($object);
$metaData = $this->em->getClassMetadata($className);
foreach ($metaData->associationMappings as $field => $mapping) {
if (8 === $mapping['type']) {
$data[$field] = $this->extractOptions($object, $field);
}
}
return json_encode($data);
}
Controller use of service:
$searches = $this->get('mana.searches');
$disabledOptions = $searches->getDisabledOptions($household);
$metadata = $searches->getMetadata($household);
...
$form = $this->createForm(HouseholdType::class, $household, $formOptions);
...
return $this->render('Household/edit.html.twig',
array(
'form' => $form->createView(),
....
'metadata' => $metadata,
));
Example of form class field:
->add('housing', EntityType::class,
array(
'class' => 'TruckeeProjectmanaBundle:Housing',
'choice_label' => 'housing',
'placeholder' => '',
'attr' => (in_array('Housing', $options['disabledOptions']) ? ['disabled' => 'disabled'] : []),
'label' => 'Housing: ',
'query_builder' => function (EntityRepository $er) use ($options) {
if (false === in_array('Housing', $options['disabledOptions'])) {
return $er->createQueryBuilder('alias')
->orderBy('alias.housing', 'ASC')
->where('alias.enabled=1');
} else {
return $er->createQueryBuilder('alias')
->orderBy('alias.housing', 'ASC');
}
},
))
...
public function configureOptions(OptionsResolver $resolver)
{
$resolver->setDefaults(array(
'data_class' => 'Truckee\ProjectmanaBundle\Entity\Household',
'required' => false,
'disabledOptions' => [],
));
}
Jquery to remove disabled attribute:
$("input[type=Submit]").click(function () {
$("input").removeAttr("disabled");
$("select").removeAttr("disabled");
});
Example of template & jquery for ManyToMany relationship:
<div id="household_options" style="display:none;">{{ metadata }}</div>
jquery:
if (0 < $("#household_options").length) {
var house_options = JSON.parse($("#household_options").text());
$.each(house_options, function (index, item) {
$.each(item, function (k, v) {
var formAttr = 'household_' + index + '_' + v.id;
$("#" + formAttr).attr('disabled', 'disabled');
});
});
}