Why won't sfValidatorDoctrineChoice validate? - symfony1

Question

I'm trying to set a drop down to 'required' but the form still goes through. What am I doing wrong?
Here is the code:
this->exportForm = new sfForm();
$widgets['sheet_type'] = new sfWidgetFormDoctrineChoice(array('model' => 'ExportSheet', 'add_empty' => true));
$this->exportForm->setWidgets($widgets);
$this->exportForm->setValidators(array('sheet_type' => new sfValidatorDoctrineChoice(array('model' => 'ExportSheet', 'required' => true), array('required' => 'Please select a sheet type to export.') )));
UPDATE:
I've made the changes suggested.
actions.class.php:
$this->exportForm = new sfForm();
$this->exportForm->getWidgetSchema()->setNameFormat('exportForm[%s]');
$widgets['sheet_type'] = new sfWidgetFormDoctrineChoice(array('model' => 'ExportSheet', 'add_empty' => true));
$this->exportForm->setWidgets($widgets);
$this->exportForm->setValidators(array('sheet_type' => new sfValidatorDoctrineChoice(array('model' => 'ExportSheet', 'required' => true), array('required' => 'Please select a sheet type to export.') )));
if ($request->isMethod('post'))
{
$this->exportForm->bind($request->getParameter('exportForm'));
if ($this->exportForm->isValid())
{
...
}
}
Template:
<form method="post" action="<?php echo url_for('#export'); ?>">
<div id="export" style="display: block">
<?php echo $exportForm['sheet_type']->renderRow(); ?>
</form>
I can see when I submit that the echoing $request->getParameter('sheet_type') does return a value. If this is the case, why is the validation still failing?

Answer 1

There are 2 parts to validating a form ... the first is adding the validators the second is checking if its valid ....
take this example :
public function executeSomeaction(sfWebRequest $request)
{
// Define the form
this->exportForm = new sfForm();
$widgets['sheet_type'] = new sfWidgetFormDoctrineChoice(array('model' => 'ExportSheet', 'add_empty' => true));
$this->exportForm->setWidgets($widgets);
$this->exportForm->setValidators(array('sheet_type' => new sfValidatorDoctrineChoice(array('model' => 'ExportSheet', 'required' => true), array('required' => 'Please select a sheet type to export.') )));
// Deal with the request
if ($request->isMethod('post'))
{
$this->exportForm->bind($request->getParameter(<your form>));
if ($this->exporForm->isValid())
{
// Handle the form submission
// ...
$this->redirect('foo/bar');
}
}
}
Its only the second part within if ($request->isMethod('post')) that applies your validation and checks the user submitted data. See here in the symfony docs about handling forms with validation
If you use the following to add a naming schema for your form output then getting all of the results is easy ....
$this->exportForm->getWidgetSchema()->setNameFormat('exportForm[%s]');
then you can get use :
$this->exportForm->bind($request->getParameter('exportForm'));
this will then get the array with all of the field values in it and bind it to your form - ready for checking to see if its valid.
Update
you need to specify
$this->exportForm->getWidgetSchema()->setNameFormat('exportForm[%s]');
after
$this->exportForm->setWidgets($widgets);
as the setWidgets method resets the naming format