If you are like me, you see the nice Forms chapter, but when you follow the instructions, your forms don't look nice like the examples.

I gleaned the following techniques from various forum posts. I take NO credit for this, it's heavily snatched from other sources.

First, create your format class, which lays out all forms. I use tables in my design, but you can find examples of div based versions elsewhere, )such as here).

/lib/sfWidgetFormSchemaFormatterCustom.class.php:

<?php
class sfWidgetFormSchemaFormatterCustom extends sfWidgetFormSchemaFormatterTable
{
  protected
    $rowFormat       = "<tr class='formrow'>\n  <th class='formheader'>%label%:</th>\n  <td class='forminput'>%error%%field%%help%%hidden_fields%</td>\n</tr>\n",
    $errorRowFormat  = "<tr><td colspan='formerror' colspan=\"2\">\n%errors%</td></tr>\n",
    $helpFormat      = '<br />%help%',
    $decoratorFormat = "<table class='form'>\n  %content%</table>";
}
 

The key here is to insert into each HTML element the global classes to format your code. Above, you can see I added the 'form' class to the table, 'formheader' to the header rows, and 'forminput' for each field.

Next, you need to globally enable this formatter for all forms:

/config/ProjectConfiguration.class.php:

<?php
 
require_once dirname(dirname(__FILE__)).'/lib/vendor/symfony/lib/autoload/sfCoreAutoload.class.php';
sfCoreAutoload::register();
 
class ProjectConfiguration extends sfProjectConfiguration
{
  public function setup()
  {
    // for compatibility / remove and enable only the plugins you want
    $this->enableAllPluginsExcept(array('sfDoctrinePlugin', 'sfCompat10Plugin'));
    sfWidgetFormSchema::setDefaultFormFormatterName('Custom');
  }
}
 

Naturally, make sure you manage your plugins appropriately. They key line is the:

sfWidgetFormSchema::setDefaultFormFormatterName('Custom');
 

Now, customize your CSS files:

.form {
  padding-top:15px;
}
.formrow {
 
}
.formheader {
  text-align: right;
  font-weight: bold;
  padding-right: 10px;
  vertical-align: middle;
}
td.forminput input {
  width: 300px;
}
.formerror {
 
}
 

Hope this helps others.

This snippet may be used as a post-validator to verify that a column exists within a Propel table. It's a trivial derivative of the sfValidatorPropelUnique (so much so I left the copyrights in place). It's strictly a that validator with the logic reversed.

/*
 * This file is part of the symfony package.
 * (c) Fabien Potencier <fabien.potencier@symfony-project.com>
 *
 * For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE
 * file that was distributed with this source code.
 */
 
/**
 * sfValidatorPropelExisting validates that the uniqueness of a column.
 *
 * Warning: sfValidatorPropelExisting is susceptible to race conditions.
 * To avoid this issue, wrap the validation process and the model saving
 * inside a transaction.
 *
 * @package    symfony
 * @subpackage validator
 * @author     Fabien Potencier <fabien.potencier@symfony-project.com>
 * @version    SVN: $Id: sfValidatorPropelExisting.class.php 13249 2008-11-22 16:10:11Z fabien $
 */
class sfValidatorPropelExisting extends sfValidatorSchema
{
  /**
   * Constructor.
   *
   * @param array  $options   An array of options
   * @param array  $messages  An array of error messages
   *
   * @see sfValidatorSchema
   */
  public function __construct($options = array(), $messages = array())
  {
    parent::__construct(null, $options, $messages);
  }
 
  /**
   * Configures the current validator.
   *
   * Available options:
   *
   *  * model:              The model class (required)
   *  * column:             The unique column name in Propel field name format (required)
   *                        If the uniquess is for several columns, you can pass an array of field names
   *  * field               Field name used by the form, other than the column name
   *  * primary_key:        The primary key column name in Propel field name format (optional, will be introspected if not provided)
   *                        You can also pass an array if the table has several primary keys
   *  * connection:         The Propel connection to use (null by default)
   *  * throw_global_error: Whether to throw a global error (false by default) or an error tied to the first field related to the column option array
   *
   * @see sfValidatorBase
   */
  protected function configure($options = array(), $messages = array())
  {
    $this->addRequiredOption('model');
    $this->addRequiredOption('column');
    $this->addOption('field', null);
    $this->addOption('primary_key', null);
    $this->addOption('connection', null);
    $this->addOption('throw_global_error', false);
 
    $this->setMessage('invalid', 'An object with the same "%column%" already exist.');
  }
 
  /**
   * @see sfValidatorBase
   */
  protected function doClean($values)
  {
    if (!is_array($values))
    {
      throw new InvalidArgumentException('You must pass an array parameter to the clean() method (this validator can only be used as a post validator).');
    }
 
    if (!is_array($this->getOption('column')))
    {
      $this->setOption('column', array($this->getOption('column')));
    }
 
    if (!is_array($field = $this->getOption('field')))
    {
      $this->setOption('field', $field ? array($field) : array());
    }
    $fields = $this->getOption('field');
 
    $criteria = new Criteria();
    foreach ($this->getOption('column') as $i => $column)
    {
      $name = isset($fields[$i]) ? $fields[$i] : $column;
      if (!array_key_exists($name, $values))
      {
        // one of the column has be removed from the form
        return $values;
      }
 
      $colName = call_user_func(array(constant($this->getOption('model').'::PEER'), 'translateFieldName'), $column, BasePeer::TYPE_FIELDNAME, BasePeer::TYPE_COLNAME);
 
      $criteria->add($colName, $values[$name]);
    }
 
    $object = call_user_func(array(constant($this->getOption('model').'::PEER'), 'doSelectOne'), $criteria, $this->getOption('connection'));
 
    // if no object or if we're updating the object, it's ok
    if (!is_null($object) && !$this->isUpdate($object, $values))
    {
      return $values;
    }
 
    $error = new sfValidatorError($this, 'invalid', array('column' => implode(', ', $this->getOption('column'))));
 
    if ($this->getOption('throw_global_error'))
    {
      throw $error;
    }
 
    $columns = $this->getOption('column');
 
    throw new sfValidatorErrorSchema($this, array($columns[0] => $error));
  }
 
  /**
   * Returns whether the object is being updated.
   *
   * @param BaseObject  $object   A Propel object
   * @param array       $values   An array of values
   *
   * @return Boolean     true if the object is being updated, false otherwise
   */
  protected function isUpdate(BaseObject $object, $values)
  {
    // check each primary key column
    foreach ($this->getPrimaryKeys() as $column)
    {
      $columnPhpName = call_user_func(array(constant($this->getOption('model').'::PEER'), 'translateFieldName'), $column, BasePeer::TYPE_FIELDNAME, BasePeer::TYPE_PHPNAME);
      $method = 'get'.$columnPhpName;
      if (!isset($values[$column]) or $object->$method() != $values[$column])
      {
        return false;
      }
    }
 
    return true;
  }
 
  /**
   * Returns the primary keys for the model.
   *
   * @return array An array of primary keys
   */
  protected function getPrimaryKeys()
  {
    if (is_null($this->getOption('primary_key')))
    {
      $primaryKeys = array();
      $tableMap = call_user_func(array(constant($this->getOption('model').'::PEER'), 'getTableMap'));
      foreach ($tableMap->getColumns() as $column)
      {
        if (!$column->isPrimaryKey())
        {
          continue;
        }
 
        $primaryKeys[] = call_user_func(array(constant($this->getOption('model').'::PEER'), 'translateFieldName'), $column->getPhpName(), BasePeer::TYPE_PHPNAME, BasePeer::TYPE_FIELDNAME);
      }
 
      $this->setOption('primary_key', $primaryKeys);
    }
 
    if (!is_array($this->getOption('primary_key')))
    {
      $this->setOption('primary_key', array($this->getOption('primary_key')));
    }
 
    return $this->getOption('primary_key');
  }
}