php - ZF2 + Doctrine 2: Hydrate related objects via ZF2 Form -

our application (zend framework 2 + doctrine 2) has order entity references related objects billingaddress , on. have implemented rest api create , update orders. data passed api associative array , data of referenced objects can encapsulated inside array. i. e. data received order api looks this

$data = [     // attribute of order entity     'remarks' => 'urgent order',      // data of referenced billingaddress     'billing_address' => [         'firstname' => 'barry',         'lastname' => 'fooman'     ] ]; 

first thing note fact given billingaddress can either new or existing one! in latter case id part of billing_address data.

using doctrineobject hydrator

$hydrator = new doctrineobject($entitymanager); $hydrator->hydrate($order, $data); 

doctrine takes care of updating or creating referenced objects automagically. how doing far: take received data, little processing sanitize , validate data , call hydrator.

however want use zend\form\form easy sanitizing of received data. setting form simple attributes of order pretty easy

class orderform     extends \zend\form\form {     public function __construct()     {         parent::__construct('order');          $this             ->add([                 'name' => 'remarks',                 'type' => 'text'             ]);     } } 

but struggle referenced objects. how set form referenced objects created or updated doctrine using hydrator directly? have create "sub-form/fieldset"?

yes, can create fieldset businessaddress entity , add orderform.

use zend\form\fieldset;  class businessaddressfieldset extends fieldset {   public function __construct($entitymanager) {      parent::__construct('businessaddress');      $this->add(array(         'name' => 'firstname',         'type' => 'zend\form\element\text',         'options' => array(             'label' => 'first name',         ),         'attributes' => array(             'type' => 'text',         ),     ));      $this->add(array(         'name' => 'lastname',         'type' => 'zend\form\element\text',         'options' => array(             'label' => 'last name',         ),         'attributes' => array(             'type' => 'text',         ),     )); }  } 

and add field set orderform:

class orderform extends \zend\form\form {     public function __construct()     {         parent::__construct('order');          // add fields          $this->add(new businessaddressfieldset());       } } 

make sure name of fieldset set, match name of reference , set form hydrator.