Data transformers
By using data transformers, the form components in Symfony offer a powerful way of dealing with this scenario. The form component allows three distinct representations of the same data, which are as follows:
The one in the view (in the HTML)
The one in the model
The one in the form itself (if necessary)
In most cases, this is overkill. For our current case, only one transformer will be enough to go from a string (such as 42.0321650 and 115.032160513) to the PHP object representation. However, if you think about date and time, it can be that your form offers the choice that the view shows three select boxes for the year, month, and day; a datepicker; or a timestamp-based value. At the same time, you can expect that your PHP model object always needs it as a string based on a certain format. If you want to create a form type that offers this kind of flexibility, it's better if the form internally keeps everything as a DateTime
object, and then transforms it for the view or the...