Remove email validation group on FOSUser with SonataUser

fos_user.yml

fos_user:
    db_driver:      orm
    firewall_name:  main
    user_class:     Application\Sonata\UserBundle\Entity\User

    group:
        group_class: Application\Sonata\UserBundle\Entity\Group   
        group_manager: sonata.user.orm.group_manager  
        
    profile:
        # Authentication Form
        form:
            type:               fos_user_profile
            handler:            fos_user.profile.form.handler.default
            name:               fos_user_profile_form
#            validation_groups:  [Authentication] # Please note : this is not the default value
            validation_groups:  [Default] 
        
    registration:
        form:
            validation_groups:  [Default]
        
    service:
        user_manager: sonata.user.orm.user_manager 

sonata:user.yml

sonata_user:
    impersonating:
        route:  sonata_admin_dashboard 

    security_acl:             false
    manager_type: orm
    admin:
        user:
          class:      Application\Sonata\UserBundle\Admin\UserAdmin    
    class:
        user:  Application\Sonata\UserBundle\Entity\User
        group: Application\Sonata\UserBundle\Entity\Group  

    profile:
        form:
            validation_groups:  [Profile, Default]        

User.php

<?php

namespace Application\Sonata\UserBundle\Entity;

//use FOS\UserBundle\Entity\User as BaseUser;
use Sonata\UserBundle\Entity\BaseUser as BaseUser;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection;
use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Validator\Constraints\UniqueEntity;

/**
 *
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="Application\Sonata\UserBundle\Entity\UserRepository")
 * ORM\Table(name="fos_user")
 * @ORM\Table(name="users",
 *   indexes={
 *     @ORM\Index(name="index_compartment_id", columns={"compartment_id"}),
 *     @ORM\Index(name="index_users_on_branch_id", columns={"branch_id"}),
 *   },
 *   uniqueConstraints={
 *     @ORM\UniqueConstraint(name="username_canonical_unique", columns={"username_canonical"})
 *   }
 * )
 * @UniqueEntity(fields="usernameCanonical", errorPath="username", message="fos_user.username.already_used")
 * @ORM\AttributeOverrides({
 *      @ORM\AttributeOverride(name="email", column=@ORM\Column(type="string", name="email", length=255, unique=false, nullable=true)),
 *      @ORM\AttributeOverride(name="emailCanonical", column=@ORM\Column(type="string", name="email_canonical", length=255, unique=false, nullable=true))
 * })
 */
//class User
class User extends BaseUser
{
}

UserAdmin.php

<?php

namespace Application\Sonata\UserBundle\Admin;

use Sonata\UserBundle\Admin\Model\UserAdmin as SonataUserAdmin;
use Sonata\AdminBundle\Form\FormMapper;

class UserAdmin extends SonataUserAdmin
{
    // @see https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sonata-users/lLZyA4VBKOY
    protected $formOptions = array(
        'validation_groups' => 'default'
    );

    protected function configureFormFields(FormMapper $formMapper)
    {
        $formMapper->add('email', null, array('required' => false));
    }
}

This sums up misc solutions provided:

Change validation group on fos_user config:

fos_user:
    profile:
        # Authentication Form
        form:
            type:               fos_user_profile
            handler:            fos_user.profile.form.handler.default
            name:               fos_user_profile_form
#            validation_groups:  [Authentication] # Please note : this is not the default value
            validation_groups:  [Default] 

Change validation group on sonata_user config:

sonata_user:
    profile:
        form:
            validation_groups:  [CustomGroup, Profile, Default]

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24106897/sonata-user-bundle-validation-constraints-on-custom-user-entity
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25609526/adding-customised-validation-rules-to-sonatauserbundle

Changing validation groups on the admin class via formOptions:

    protected $formOptions = array(
        'validation_groups' => 'creation'
    );

• https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sonata-users/lLZyA4VBKOY

Overriding Annotations:

/**
 * User
 *
 * @ORM\Table(name="user")
 * @ORM\Entity
 * @ORM\AttributeOverrides({
 *      @ORM\AttributeOverride(name="email", column=@ORM\Column(type="string", name="email", length=255, unique=false, nullable=true)),
 *      @ORM\AttributeOverride(name="emailCanonical", column=@ORM\Column(type="string", name="email_canonical", length=255, unique=false, nullable=true))
 * })
 */
class User extends BaseUser {
    // ...
}

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12354738/email-user-not-required

Improving previous steps:

use Symfony\Bridge\Doctrine\Validator\Constraints\UniqueEntity;

/**
 * @ORM\Entity
 * @ORM\Table(name="User_User")
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="UserRepository")
 * @UniqueEntity(fields="usernameCanonical", errorPath="username", message="fos_user.username.already_used")
 * @ORM\AttributeOverrides({
 *      @ORM\AttributeOverride(name="email", column=@ORM\Column(type="string", name="email", length=255, unique=false, nullable=true)),
 *      @ORM\AttributeOverride(name="emailCanonical", column=@ORM\Column(type="string", name="email_canonical", length=255, unique=false, nullable=true))
 * })
 */
class User extends BaseUser
{
...
}

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9043356/fosuserbundle-remove-unique-index-for-emailcanonical

But still Sonata User validates and does not allow a blank email field.

Discussed at: https://twitter.com/webdevilopers/status/587573088491012096

I've found why this does not work as it should be.

In UserAdmin class of Sonata Bundle in the getFormBuilder() method they overwrite the validation_groups option without any checks.

$options['validation_groups'] = (!$this->getSubject() || is_null($this->getSubject()->getId())) ? 'Registration' : 'Profile';

Please fix, this is not really flexible. The point of Sonata should be to be as flexible as possible!