symfony
An Open-Source Framework
for Professionals
Fabien Potencier
Stefan Koopmanschap

Before we begin
How many have already
used symfony for a project,
even a very small personal project?

Who are we?
• Fabien Potencier
– Founder of Sensio
• Web Agency
• Since 1998
• 45 people
• Open-Source Specialists
• Big corporate customers
– Creator and lead developer of symfony
• Stefan Koopmanschap
– Consultant at Ibuildings
– Initiator of symfony-framework.nl and symfonyCamp
– symfony developer for 2 years

symfony
• PHP Web framework
• Based on
– 10 years of Sensio experience
– Existing Open-Source projects
• Built for :
– Professional websites
– Complex needs
– Demanding environments

Framework

Whatever the application, a
framework is build to ease
development by providing tools
for recurrent and boring tasks.

Maintainability & Evolutivity

Structure & Standardisation

MVC

Model

View

Controller

1
Internet
2
Controleur 6
3 5
Modèle Vue
4
BDD

Develop Faster & Better

Write less code
less code

less complexity

less bugs

more productivity

more time
More time for edge cases, business rules, …

Each line of code has an initial cost
Costinitial = Costdeveloppement + Costtests
… and there is a cost to maintain the line
Costmaintenance >> Costinitial
Costmaintenance = Costunderstanding + Costchange + Costtests + Costdeployment
Kent Beck (based on Yourdon and Constantine)

symfony

An Open-Source Framework

MIT Licence
« It is a permissive license, meaning that it permits
reuse within proprietary software on the condition
that the license is distributed with that software. »

An Open-Source Documentation

• Open-Source documentation
– The book (450 pages - GFDL)
– Askeet Tutorial (250 pages)
• Translation in 12 langages
– (Chinese) – Polski
– Deutsch – Português
– Español – Russian
– Français – Ukrainian
– Italiano – Čeština
– (Japanese)
– Nederlands

A great Community

Mailing-list support / forums / IRC
240 available plugins
300k unique visitors per month on the official
website www.symfony-project.org

« Entreprise » Version

Version 1.0 released early 2007
– Maintained for 3 years (early 2010)
– ~1 release a month (1.0.16 now)
• Bug and security fixes, compatibility with
new PHP versions fixes
• No new features (even small ones)
• Upgrading is simple and safe

Version 1.1 to be released this month
– Maintained for 1 year
– Same release cycle as 1.0
Roadmap
– Version 1.2 Q4 2008
– Version 1.3 Q1 2009

symfony is a set of cohesive
but decoupled classes

symfony platform

sfEventDispatcher
// sfUser!
$event = new sfEvent($this, ‘user.change_culture’,
array(‘culture’ => $culture));!
$dispatcher->notify($event);!
// sfI18N!
$callback = array($this, ‘listenToChangeCultureEvent’);!
$dispatcher->connect(‘user.change_culture’, $callback);!
• sfI18N and sfUser are decoupled
• « Anybody » can listen to any event
• You can notify existing events or create new ones

the symfony MVC framework
is based on
the symfony platform

Let’s start a Project

The Project
• A simple blog system
– Posts
– Categories
– Authors
– Comments
• Requirements
– Maintainable
– Customizable
– Secure
• Use symfony 1.1

List of recent posts
Excerpt
Categories
Post information

Sidebar customization
List of comments
Add a comment

YUI stylesheets
homepage
Famfamfam icons
post
http://www.symfony-project.org/get/design.tgz

Project Initialization

Bootstrap a symfony Project
1. Install symfony
2. Initialize a new project
3. Configure the Web Server
4. Start coding

Installing symfony
Sandbox: Ready-to-run symfony application
PEAR: Install symfony globally on your machine
Subversion: Be free to have several versions around

symfony CLI
$ symfony!

Create a new Project
$ mkdir blog!
$ cd blog!
$ symfony generate:project blog!

Create a new Application
./symfony help generate:app!

Create a new secure Application
./symfony generate:app frontend !
--escaping-strategy=on !
--csrf-secret=A$ecret!

Project, Application, Module, Action

Which symfony Version?
./symfony -V!
config/ProjectConfiguration.class.php!

Configure the Web Server
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName myapp.example.com
DocumentRoot "/path/to/blog/web"
DirectoryIndex index.php
<Directory "/path/to/blog/web">
AllowOverride All
Allow from All Web root directory is web/
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

symfony Assets
Used by the default pages and the Web Debug Toolbar
Configure the Web Server to serve symfony assets
<VirtualHost *:80>
…
Alias /sf /$sf_symfony_data_dir/web/sf
<Directory "/$sf_symfony_data_dir/web/sf">
AllowOverride All
Allow from All
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Or, create a symlink
$ cd web/
$ ln -sf ../lib/vendor/symfony/data/web/sf sf

Environments

developers customers end users
development staging production
environment environment environment

cache cache cache
debug debug debug
logs logs logs
stats
stats stats
development staging production
environment environment environment

Try a 404
dev environment!
prod environment!

Front Controllers
dev environment!
environment
prod environment!
environment

Environment Configuration
apps/frontend/config/settings.yml!
environment
Web debug toolbar

Web Debug Toolbar
Web debug toolbar

Create a Module for Posts
Create a new ‘post’ module in the ‘frontend’
application
$ php symfony generate:module frontend post!

Project, Application, Module, Action

Action and Template Naming
/frontend_dev.php/blog/index
module action
// in apps/frontend/modules/blog/actions/actions.class.php
<?php
class blogActions extends sfActions
{
public function executeIndex()
{
// do things
}
}
// in apps/frontend/modules/blog/templates/indexSuccess.php
<!–- do things -->

Browse
/frontend_dev.php/post/index!

Create the Blog Homepage
apps/frontend/modules/post/templates/indexSuccess.php!
• Copy homepage.html into indexSuccess.php
• Copy the images/ and css/ under web/
• Add the base.css CSS in view.yml
• Fix images and css paths
/frontend_dev.php/post/index!

Create an Action to show a Post
apps/frontend/modules/post/actions/actions.class.php!
• Create an empy executeShow() action
• Copy post.html into showSuccess.php
• Fix images and css paths
/frontend_dev.php/post/show!

Project, Application, Module, Action

Extract common Code
Post page specific content
Homepage specific content

The Layout
A layout wraps the template content
header.php
page content
include
decoration
page content
include
footer.php
layout.php

The Layout
Move the common code from homepage and post to
the layout
apps/frontend/templates/layout.php!

Customize the Sidebar and the Title
The title depends on the page
The sidebar depends on the page

Layout with Several "holes"
A slot content depends on the template context
Slot1
Main
content
Slot 2
Main + =
content
Slot 1
Slot 2
Layout Template Rendered
with slots Page

Create Slots for Title and Sidebar
apps/frontend/templates/layout.php!

Fill the Slots
apps/frontend/modules/blog/templates/showSuccess.php!

Passing Data from Action to Template
apps/frontend/modules/blog/actions/actions.class.php!
apps/frontend/modules/blog/templates/indexSuccess.php!

Make the Counter dynamic

Database Schema
A post has an author
A post can be in a category
A post can have comments

Propel : The symfony ORM
ORM = Object-Relational Mapping
Mapping a relational database to an object-oriented
model
Database Abstraction
Relational Object-Oriented
table class
row, record object
field, column proterty

Schema Conventions
post:
id: # primary key, autoincrement integer
author_id: # foreign key to Author
created_at: # timestamp, set to current time on creation
updated_at: # timestamp, set to current time on update
# column types
published_at: timestamp
title: varchar(255)
content: longvarchar
is_spam: boolean
# complex column definitions
last_name: { type: varchar(100), index: true, required: true }
category_id: { type: integer, foreignTable: category,
foreignReference: id, required: false, onDelete: setnull }

Database Schema
config/schema.yml!

Build the Model Classes
./symfony propel:build-model!

From Schema to Object Model
$ ./symfony propel:build-model!
propel: lib/
post: model/
id: ~ om/
name: varchar(255) BasePost.php
BasePostPeer.php
Post.php
PostPeer.php
1 table > 4 classes?

Base and Custom Classes
lib/
model/
Base classes
om/ Under model/om/, prefixed by Base
BasePost.php
BasePostPeer.php Generated by Propel
Post.php Overwritten each time the schema
PostPeer.php
changes and the model is
generated
Never edit these files!
lib/ Custom classes
model/
om/ Under model/, no prefix
BasePost.php
Inherit from Base classes
BasePostPeer.php
Post.php Never overwritten
PostPeer.php
Put custom methods here
Override base methods here

Peer and Object Classes
lib/ Peer classes
model/
om/ Suffixed by Peer
BasePost.php Useful to retrieve a collection of objects
BasePostPeer.php
Post.php Methods return objects
PostPeer.php Only static methods (::, self)
lib/ Object classes
model/
om/
No suffix
BasePost.php Useful to create / inspect / update
BasePostPeer.php records
Post.php Methods return column values
PostPeer.php Only object methods (->, $this)

Database Initialization
mysqladmin create dutchconference!
./symfony configure:database mysql://localhost/dutchconference!

Build the SQL queries
./symfony propel:build-sql!
./symfony propel:insert-sql!

Shortcut for all the previous Tasks
./symfony propel:build-all!

Initial Data
data/fixtures/01-data.yml!
Define PKs with names
Use names instead of Pks
Dynamic values

Load Data
$ ./symfony propel:data-load frontend!

Summary of Code Generation
2 Object model
propel:build-model! Base, Custom,
Peer and object classes
1
schema.yml
3 propel:build-sql!
propel:insert-sql!
Relational database
Tables, columns, keys, indexes

If the Database preexists the Project
3 Object model
propel:build-model! Base, Custom,
Peer and object classes
2
schema.yml
1
propel:build-schema!
Relational database
Tables, columns, keys, indexes

Generated Methods of Object Classes
Getter for columns
$title = $post->getTitle(); CamelCase version
$content = $post->getContent(); of the column name
$createdAt = $post->getCreatedAt();
Some getters have special options
$date = $post->getCreatedAt($dateFormat);
Getter by name
$title = $post->getByName('title');

Generated Methods of Object Classes
Manipulate primary keys
$commentId = $comment->getId();
// for composite keys, prefer
$commentId = $comment->getPrimaryKey();
Manipulate foreign keys
$postId = $comment->getPostId();
// in practice, these methods are not used much
// use getter for foreign objects instead
$post = $comment->getPost(); // Post object
// as the result is an object, you can chain method calls
$content = $comment->getPost()->getContent();
One-to-Many smart getters
$comments = $post->getCommments(); // Array of Comments
$nb = $post->countCommments(); // Integer

Get the Posts from the Database

What the Model Layer does
Action Model Database
PostPeer::doSelect(new Criteria())!
Criteria to SQL translation
SELECT * FROM post!
Query execution
resultset!
Object hydrating
Array of Post objects!

What the Model Layer does
Template Model Database
$post->getTitle()!
Looking up internal attribute
String!

Make the Post show Page dynamic
/frontend_dev.php/post/show?id=1!

Make the Post show Page dynamic
Display a 404 error if the post does not exist

Change the Date Format
getPublishedAt() first argument accepts the date()
format or the strftime() format
symfony format_date() helper is i18n aware

Helper Groups
• Tag
• URLs
• Assets (images, JavaScript, CSS, …)
• Subtemplate inclusion (slot, partial, component)
• Links
• Form
• Javascript and Ajax
• Text, number, date manipulation
• I18N
• …

Permalinks
• Many applications provide an alternative to
functional URLs
• Permalinks look like links to permanent content
while the resource they reference is dynamically
generated
• Primarily focused at search engines, permalink
often carry more readable data for end users
http://www.symfony-project.org/blog/2008/05/21/new-symfony-security-policy

Links to the Post Page
apps/frontend/config/routing.yml!
lib/modełPost.php!

Links to the Post Page
apps/frontend/modules/post/templates/indexSuccess.php!
apps/frontend/modules/post/actions/actions.class.php!

Link to the Homepage

Add the Comments
apps/frontend/modules/post/templates/showSuccess.php!

What the Model Layer does
Template Model Database
$post->getComments()!
SELECT * FROM comment!
WHERE comment.post_id= ?!
Query execution!
resultset!
Array of Comment objects!
Object hydrating!

Comment Form
$ ./symfony propel:build-forms!

Base and Custom Classes
lib/ Base classes
form/
base/
Under form/base/, prefixed by Base
BasePostForm.class.php Generated by symfony
PostForm.class.php
Overwritten when the schema
changes and the forms are
generated
Never edit these files!
lib/ Custom classes
form/
base/ Under form/, no prefix
BasePost.Form.class.php
Inherit from Base classes
PostForm.class.php
Never overwritten
Put custom methods here
Override base methods here

Create a Comment Form
apps/frontend/modules/post/actions/actions.class.php!
apps/frontend/modules/post/templates/showSuccess.php!

Create a Comment Form

Propel Forms
• Generated by propel:build-forms
• 1 table = 1 form
• Model introspection to determine
– The widget
– The validation rules
• Automatically converts a form to a Propel object
and save it to the database
• Extensible

Bind The Form to the Post

Customize the Form
lib/form/CommentForm.class.php!

Form Life Cycle

Comments

Security: XSS

Security: CSRF

Create the Category Page
lib/modełPostPeer.class.php!
apps/frontend/modules/blog/actions/actions.class.php!

Create the Category Page
apps/frontend/config/routing.yml!
apps/frontend/templates/layout.php!

Create a Partial for the List
apps/frontend/modules/blog/templates/_list.php!
apps/frontend/modules/blog/templates/listByCategorySuccess.php!

Create a Component
apps/frontend/modules/post/actions/components.class.php!
apps/frontend/modules/post/templates/_categories.php!
apps/frontend/templates/layout.php!

Create a Web Service for Posts
apps/frontend/config/routing.yml!
apps/frontend/modules/post/templates/indexSuccess.xml.php!

If we have time…
• Functional Tests
• Cache
• CRUD to manage posts

Sensio S.A.
26, rue Salomon de Rothschild
92 286 Suresnes Cedex
FRANCE
Tél. : +33 1 40 99 80 80
Contact
Fabien Potencier
fabien.potencier@sensio.com
http://www.sensiolabs.com/ http://www.symfony-project.com/