Silex is a PHP microframework built on Symfony2 and Pimple. This document provides an introduction to Silex by demonstrating how to set up a basic application with routing and Twig templating. It then expands on this by implementing an API with CRUD endpoints for users using Doctrine DBAL and MySQL. Finally, it discusses advanced topics like extending the application class, separating configuration and routes, and using request lifecycle hooks.

1. Silex: From nothing, to an API
Sunday, 21 April 13

2. About me
I'm Chris Kemper
I work at Drummond Central, but I also freelance
I've been in the industry for around 5 years
I've written a book with a snake on the cover (It's on
Version Control, if you didn't know)
I also own an elePHPant
Sunday, 21 April 13

3. About me
Pies
Cows
Sunday, 21 April 13

4. What is Silex?
"Silex is a PHP microframework for PHP 5.3. It is built on the
shoulders of Symfony2 and Pimple and also inspired by sinatra."
Created by Fabien Potencier and Igor Wiedler
Sunday, 21 April 13

5. Getting started
You can download it from the site directly
http://silex.sensiolabs.org/
Or, you can get with the times and use Composer
{
"require": {
"silex/silex": "1.0.*@dev"
! }
}
Sunday, 21 April 13

6. Your first end point
I’ve used Composer, so after it’s all installed, you can add the first end
point!
require_once __DIR__.'/../vendor/autoload.php';
$app = new SilexApplication();
$app->get('/hello/{name}', function($name) use($app) {
!return 'Hello '.$app->escape($name);
});
$app->run();
Sunday, 21 April 13

7. Don’t forget about .htaccess
Composer doesn’t pull it down, do don’t forget to put it in.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options -MultiViews
RewriteEngine On
#RewriteBase /path/to/app
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
</IfModule>
If you’re using Apache 2.2.16+, then you can use:
FallbackResource /index.php
Sunday, 21 April 13

8. nginx works too!
server {
location = / {
try_files @site @site;
}
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ @site;
}
location ~ .php$ {
return 404;
}
location @site {
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/www.sock;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root/index.php;
#fastcgi_param HTTPS on;
}
}
Sunday, 21 April 13

9. Using a templating language
You don’t always want to output strings, so let’s use Twig, because it’s
awesome.
{
"require": {
"silex/silex": "1.0.*@dev",
"twig/twig": ">=1.8,<2.0-dev",
"symfony/twig-bridge": "~2.1"
}
}
Sunday, 21 April 13

10. Register the Twig Service provider
$app->register(new SilexProviderTwigServiceProvider(), array(
! 'twig.path' => __DIR__.'/views',
));
Now to use it
$app->get('/hello/{name}', function ($name) use ($app) {
!return $app['twig']->render('hello.twig', array(
! 'name' => $name,
));
});
Sunday, 21 April 13

11. So many more Service providers
Check the docs at http://silex.sensiolabs.org/documentation
There are a boat load of Built-in Service Providers which you can take advantage of!
Doctrine, Monolog, Form and Validation are just a couple of examples.
Sunday, 21 April 13

12. Tips: Extending the base application
This allows you to add, anything to the base application to
make your own life easier.
First of all, you need a class
<?php
namespace Acme;
use
SilexApplication as BaseApplication;
class Application extends BaseApplication {
}
Sunday, 21 April 13

13. Tips: Extending the base application
Now time to autoload that class, psr-0 style.
{
"require": {
"silex/silex": "1.0.*@dev",
"twig/twig": ">=1.8,<2.0-dev",
"symfony/twig-bridge": "~2.1"!
},
"autoload": {
"psr-0": {"Acme": "src/"}
}
}
Sunday, 21 April 13

14. Tips: Separate your config and routes
app/bootstrap.php
require_once __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';
use
! SymfonyComponentHttpFoundationRequest,
! SymfonyComponentHttpFoundationResponse;
use
! AcmeApplication;
$app = new Application;
$app->register(new SilexProviderTwigServiceProvider(),
array(
! 'twig.path' => __DIR__.'/views',
));
return $app;
Sunday, 21 April 13

15. Tips: Separate your config and routes
web/index.php
<?php
$app = include __DIR__ . '/../app/bootstrap.php';
$app->get('/hello/{name}', function ($name) use ($app) {
return $app['twig']->render('hello.twig', array(
'name' => $name,
));
});
$app->run();
Sunday, 21 April 13

16. Let's make an API
Silex is great for API's, so let's make one. Here is the groundwork for a basic
user-based API
Some lovely endpoints:
Create a user (/user) - This will use POST to create a new user in the DB.
Update a user (/user/{id}) - This will use PUT to update the user
View a user (/user/{id}) - This will use GET to view the users information
Delete a user (/user/{id}) - Yes you guessed it, this uses the DELETE method.
Sunday, 21 April 13

17. More dependencies!
If we want to use a database, we'll need to define one. Let's get DBAL!
{
"require": {
"silex/silex": "1.0.*@dev",
"twig/twig": ">=1.8,<2.0-dev",
"symfony/twig-bridge": "~2.1",
"doctrine/dbal": "2.2.*"
},
"autoload": {
"psr-0": {"Acme": "src/"}
}
}
Sunday, 21 April 13

18. More dependencies!
It'll just be MySQL so let's configure that
$app->register(new DoctrineServiceProvider(), array(
! 'db.options' => array(
! ! 'dbname' ! => 'acme',
! ! 'user' ! ! => 'root',
! ! 'password' ! => 'root',
! ! 'host' ! ! => 'localhost',
! ! 'driver' ! => 'pdo_mysql',
! ),
));
Sunday, 21 April 13

19. Show me your endpoints: POST
Before we can do anything, we need to create some users.
$app->post('/user', function (Request $request) use ($app) {
$user = array(
'email' => $request->get('email'),
! 'name' => $request->get('name')
);
$app['db']->insert('user', $user);
return new Response("User " . $app['db']->lastInsertId() . "
created", 201);
});
Sunday, 21 April 13

20. Show me your endpoints: PUT
To update the users, we need to use PUT
$app->put('/user/{id}', function (Request $request, $id) use
($app) {
$sql = "UPDATE user SET email = ?, name = ? WHERE id = ?";
$app['db']->executeUpdate($sql, array(
$request->get('email'),
$request->get('name'),
(int) $id)
);
!
return new Response("User " . $id . " updated", 303);
});
Sunday, 21 April 13

21. Show me your endpoints: GET
Let's get the API to output the user data as JSON
$app->get('/user/{id}', function (Request $request, $id) use
($app) {
$sql = "SELECT * FROM user WHERE id = ?";
$post = $app['db']->fetchAssoc($sql, array((int) $id));
return $app->json($post, 201);
});
Sunday, 21 April 13

22. Show me your endpoints: DELETE
Lastly, we have DELETE
$app->delete('/user/{id}', function (Request $request, $id) use
($app) {
$sql = "DELETE FROM user WHERE id = ?";
$app['db']->executeUpdate($sql, array((int) $id));
return new Response("User " . $id . " deleted", 303);
});
Sunday, 21 April 13

23. A note about match()
Using match, you can catch any method used on a route. Like so:
$app->match('/user', function () use ($app) {
! ...
});
You can also limit the method accepted by match by using the 'method'
method
$app->match('/user', function () use ($app) {
! ...
})->method('PUT|POST');
Sunday, 21 April 13

24. Using before() and after()
Each request, can be pre, or post processed. In this case, it could be used for
auth.
$before = function (Request $request) use ($app) {
...
};
$after = function (Request $request) use ($app) {
...
};
$app->match('/user', function () use ($app) {
...
})
->before($before)
->after($after);
Sunday, 21 April 13

25. Using before() and after()
This can also be used globally, like so:
$app->before(function(Request $request) use ($app) {
...
});
You can also make an event be as early as possible, or as late as possible by
using Application::EARLY_EVENT and Application::LATE_EVENT, respectively.
$app->before(function(Request $request) use ($app) {
...
}, Application::EARLY_EVENT);
Sunday, 21 April 13

26. Time for a demo
Sunday, 21 April 13

27. Summary
This is just a small amount of what Silex is capable
of, try it out.
Thank You!
http://silex.sensiolabs.org/
@chrisdkemper
http://chrisdkemper.co.uk
Sunday, 21 April 13