Symfony uses an internal routing framework to manage the mapping between internal URIs and external URLs. When a request comes in, the routing parses the URL and converts it to an internal URI. This mapping is defined in the routing.yml configuration file. Custom routes can be defined and route parameters can be validated via regular expressions. Helper methods like link_to() and url_for() generate URLs from internal URIs, and redirects can be used to change the URL in responses.

1. ROUTING IN SYMFONY
Sayed Ahmed
B.Sc. Eng. in Computer Science & Engineering
M. Sc. in Computer Science
Exploring Computing for 14+ years
sayed@justetc.net
http://sayed.justetc.net

2. URLS
 Symfony has an entire framework dedicated to URL
management:
 the routing framework
 Exposing internal code structure or sensitive
information through URLs is not secure
 Hence, Symfony uses internal URIs and External URLs
 routing manages internal URIs and external URLs
 When a request comes in
 the routing parses the URL
 and converts it to an internal URI
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3. URLS
 Internal URI
 'job/show?id='.$job->getId()
 The generic pattern for internal URIs is:
 MODULE/ACTION?key=value&key_1=value_1&...
 The url_for() helper converts this internal URI to a
proper URL:
 External URL: /job/show/id/1
 Converting Internal URIs to External URLs
 url_for('@default?module=job&action=show&id='.$job-
>getId())
 url_for('job/show?id='.$job->getId())
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4. ROUTING CONFIGURATION
 The mapping between internal URIs and external
URLs is done in the routing.yml configuration file:
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5. ROUTE CUSTOMIZATIONS
For production environment, clear the cache by calling the cache:clear task.
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6. EXAMPLE: ROUTE CUSTOMIZATION
 /job/sensio-labs/paris-france/1/web-developer
 Pattern:
 /job/:company/:location/:id/:position
 routing.yml
Changes required in the web-page file
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7. EXAMPLE: ROUTE CUSTOMIZATION
 An internal URI can also be expressed as an array:
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8. ROUTING AND INPUT VALIDATION
 The routing system has a built-in validation feature
 Each pattern variable can be validated by
 a regular expression
 defined using the requirements entry of a route
definition
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9. ROUTE CLASS
 Each route defined in routing.yml is internally converted
to an object of class sfRoute
 Can be customized as follows:
 sfRequestRoute
 Can provide by blocking
 DELETE, and PUT http requests
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10. SHORTENING OF URL_FOR()
 Object Route Class
 Use sfDoctrineRoute
 class: sfDoctrineRoute
url_for('job/show?id='.$job->getId().'&company='.$job->getCompany().
'&location='.$job->getLocation().'&position='.$job->getPosition())
Can be shortened to
url_for(array('sf_route' => 'job_show_user', 'sf_subject' => $job))
Or
url_for('job_show_user', $job)
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11. MAKE THE URL LOOK PRETTY
 Convert
 http://www.jobeet.com.localhost/frontend_dev.php/job/S
ensio+Labs/Paris%2C+France/1/Web+Developer
 To
 http://www.jobeet.com.localhost/frontend_dev.php/job/se
nsio-labs/paris-france/1/web-developer
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13. CHECK THE ROUTING
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14. ROUTING IN ACTIONS AND TEMPLATES
 Some symfony helpers take an internal URI as an
argument,
 link_to() for example
 <?php echo link_to($job->getPosition(), 'job_show_user',
$job) ?>
 Output
 <a href="/job/sensio-labs/paris-france/1/web-developer">Web
Developer</a>
 Generate absolute URL
 url_for('job_show_user', $job, true);
 link_to($job->getPosition(), 'job_show_user', $job, true);
 Generate url from action
 $this->redirect($this->generateUrl('job_show_user', $job));
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15. THE "REDIRECT" METHODS FAMILY
 redirect()
 redirectIf()
 redirectUnless()
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16. COLLECTION ROUTE CLASS
The job route above is really just a shortcut that automatically generates
seven sfDoctrineRoute routes: job, job_new, job_create, job_edit, job_update,
job_delete, job_show
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17. ROUTE DEBUGGING
 The app:routes task outputs all the routes for a
given application:
 $ php symfony app:routes frontend
 $ php symfony app:routes frontend job_edit
 Produces more debugging information
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18. DEFAULT ROUTES
 It is a good practice to define routes for all your
URLs
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19. REFERENCES
 http://www.symfony-project.org/jobeet/1_4/Doctrine/en/
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