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

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

3. 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

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

5. Framework

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

7. Maintainability & Evolutivity

8. Structure & Standardisation

9. MVC

10. Model

11. View

12. Controller

13. 1
Internet
2
Controleur 6
3 5
Modèle Vue
4
BDD

14. Develop Faster & Better

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

16. 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)

17. symfony

18. An Open-Source Framework

19. 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. »

20. An Open-Source Documentation

21. • 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

23. A great Community

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

25. « Entreprise » Version

26. 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

27. 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

28. symfony is a set of cohesive
but decoupled classes

29. symfony platform

35. 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

36. the symfony MVC framework
is based on
the symfony platform

40. Let’s start a Project

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

42. List of recent posts
Excerpt
Categories
Post information

43. Sidebar customization
List of comments
Add a comment

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

45. Project Initialization

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

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

48. symfony CLI
$ symfony!

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

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

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

52. Project, Application, Module, Action

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

54. 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>

55. 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

56. Environments

57. developers customers end users
development staging production
environment environment environment

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

59. Try a 404
dev environment!
prod environment!

60. Front Controllers
dev environment!
environment
prod environment!
environment

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

62. Web Debug Toolbar
Web debug toolbar

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

64. Project, Application, Module, Action

65. 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 -->

66. Browse
/frontend_dev.php/post/index!

67. 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!

68. 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!

69. Project, Application, Module, Action

70. Extract common Code
Post page specific content
Homepage specific content

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

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

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

74. 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

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

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

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

78. Make the Counter dynamic

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

80. 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

81. 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 }

82. Database Schema
config/schema.yml!

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

84. 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?

85. 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

86. 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)

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

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

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

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

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

92. 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

93. 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

94. 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');

95. 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

96. Get the Posts from the Database

97. 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!

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

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

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

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

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

103. 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

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

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

106. Link to the Homepage

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

108. 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!

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

110. 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

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

112. Create a Comment Form

113. 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

114. Bind The Form to the Post

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

116. Form Life Cycle

117. Comments

118. Security: XSS

119. Security: CSRF

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

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

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

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

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

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

126. 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/