Passing route url format to symfony2 form with get method - php

Question

Not sure if I properly wrote the subject but anyway.
Since you can create specific routes with different parameters for eg:
_search:
pattern: /page/{category}/{keyword}
defaults: { _controller: Bundle:Default:page, category: 9, keyword: null }
is there any way from a form with GET method to get to that route specific url format?
At the moment the url is like /page?category=2?keyword=some+keyword
As such is not passing to the route format as you may noticed.
What do I need to do to get it working through this specific format? I really have no idea how to rewrite the page url to match the route settings for the specific url. Even in plain php was stumbled on this ...
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It's the default behavior of HTML forms with GET method. You will need to build that URL yourself.
Backend way
Drawback: It makes two requests to the server instead of one
Advantage: It's more maintainable because the URL is built using the routing service
Your routing file
_search:
pattern: /page/{category}/{keyword}
defaults: { _controller: Bundle:Default:page, category: 9, keyword: null }
_search_endpoint:
pattern: /page
defaults: { _controller: Bundle:Default:redirect }
Your controller
public function redirectAction()
{
$category = $this->get('request')->query->get('category');
$keyword = $this->get('request')->query->get('keyword');
// You probably want to add some extra check here and there
// do avoid any kind of side effects or bugs.
$url = $this->generateUrl('_search', array(
'category' => $category,
'keyword' => $keyword,
));
return $this->redirect($url);
}
Frontend way
Using Javascript, you can build the URL yourself and redirect the user afterwards.
Drawback: You don't have access to the routing service (although you could use the FOSJsRoutingBundle bundle)
Advantage: You save one request
Note: You will need to get your own query string getter you can find a Stackoverflow thread here, below I'll use getQueryString on the jQuery object.
(function (window, $) {
$('#theFormId').submit(function (event) {
var category, keyword;
event.preventDefault();
// You will want to put some tests here to make
// sure the code behaves the way you are expecting
category = $.getQueryString('category');
keyword = $.getQueryString('keyword');
window.location.href = '/page/' + category + '/' + keyword;
}):
})(window, jQuery);

Answer 2

You could add a second route that will just match /page
then in the controller you can get the defaults. and merge them with any that are passed.
Take a look at a similar question I answered for some code examples.
KendoUI Grid parameters sending to a symfony2 app

Answer 3

I've too encountered this issue and I managed to resolve it with a slightly different solution.
You could also reroute like #Thomas Potaire suggested, but in the same controller, beginning your controller with :
/**
* #Route("/myroute/{myVar}", name="my_route")
*/
public function myAction(Request $request, $myVar = null)
{
if ($request->query->get('myVar') !== null) {
return $this->redirectToRoute('my_route', array(
'myVar' => str_replace(' ','+',$request->query->get('myVar')) // I needed this modification here
));
}
// your code...
}