book

The Definitive Guide to symfony

Name: The Definitive Guide to symfony
ISBN: 9781590597866

by François Zaninotto, Fabien Potencier

January 2007

Intermediate to advanced

518 pages

10h 50m

English

Apress

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Copyright
About the Authors
About Sensio Labs
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Basics
1. Introducing Symfony
1.1. Symfony in Brief1.1.1. Symfony Features1.1.2. Who Made Symfony and Why?1.1.3. The Symfony Community1.1.4. Is Symfony for Me?1.2. Fundamental Concepts1.2.1. PHP 51.2.2. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)1.2.3. Magic Methods1.2.4. PHP Extension and Application Repository (PEAR)1.2.5. Object-Relational Mapping (ORM)1.2.6. Rapid Application Development (RAD)1.2.7. YAML1.3. Summary
2. Exploring Symfony's Code
2.1. The MVC Pattern2.1.1. MVC Layering2.1.2. Layer Separation Beyond MVC2.1.3. Symfony's MVC Implementation2.1.4. Symfony Core Classes2.2. Code Organization2.2.1. Project Structure: Applications, Modules, and Actions2.2.2. File Tree Structure2.3. Common Instruments2.3.1. Parameter Holders2.3.2. Constants2.3.3. Class Autoloading2.4. Summary
3. Running Symfony
3.1. Installing the Sandbox3.2. Installing the Symfony Libraries3.2.1. Installing the Symfony PEAR Package3.2.2. Checking Out Symfony from the SVN Repository3.3. Setting Up an Application3.3.1. Creating the Project3.3.2. Creating the Application3.4. Configuring the Web Server3.4.1. Setting Up a Virtual Host3.4.2. Configuring a Shared-Host Server3.5. Troubleshooting3.5.1. Typical Problems3.5.2. Symfony Resources3.6. Source Versioning3.7. Summary
4. The Basics of Page Creation
4.1. Creating a Module Skeleton4.2. Adding a Page4.2.1. Adding an Action4.2.2. Adding a Template4.2.3. Passing Information from the Action to the Template4.3. Gathering Information from the User with Forms4.4. Linking to Another Action4.5. Getting Information from the Request4.6. Summary

5. Configuring Symfony
5.1. The Configuration System5.1.1. YAML Syntax and Symfony Conventions5.1.2. Help, a YAML File Killed My App!5.2. Overview of the Configuration Files5.2.1. Project Configuration5.2.2. Application Configuration5.2.3. Module Configuration5.3. Environments5.3.1. What Is an Environment?5.3.2. Configuration Cascade5.4. The Configuration Cache5.5. Accessing the Configuration from Code5.5.1. The sfConfig Class5.5.2. Custom Application Settings and app.yml5.6. Tips for Getting More from Configuration Files5.6.1. Using Constants in YAML Configuration Files5.6.2. Using Scriptable Configuration5.6.3. Browsing Your Own YAML File5.7. Summary
2. The Core Architecture
6. Inside the Controller Layer
6.1. The Front Controller6.1.1. The Front Controller's Job in Detail6.1.2. The Default Front Controller6.1.3. Calling Another Front Controller to Switch the Environment6.1.4. Batch Files6.2. Actions6.2.1. The Action Class6.2.2. Alternative Action Class Syntax6.2.3. Retrieving Information in the Action6.2.4. Action Termination6.2.5. Skipping to Another Action6.2.6. Repeating Code for Several Actions of a Module6.3. Accessing the Request6.4. User Session6.4.1. Accessing the User Session6.4.2. Flash Attributes6.4.3. Session Management6.5. Action Security6.5.1. Access Restriction6.5.2. Granting Access6.5.3. Complex Credentials6.6. Validation and Error-Handling Methods6.7. Filters6.7.1. The Filter Chain6.7.2. Building Your Own Filter6.7.3. Filter Activation and Parameters6.7.4. Sample Filters6.8. Module Configuration6.9. Summary
7. Inside the View Layer
7.1. Templating7.1.1. Helpers7.1.2. Page Layout7.1.3. Template Shortcuts7.2. Code Fragments7.2.1. Partials7.2.2. Components7.2.3. Slots7.3. View Configuration7.3.1. The view.yml File7.3.2. The Response Object7.3.3. View Configuration Settings7.4. Component Slots7.5. Output Escaping7.5.1. Activating Output Escaping7.5.2. Escaping Strategy7.5.3. Escaping Helpers7.5.4. Escaping Arrays and Objects7.6. Summary
8. Inside the Model Layer
8.1. Why Use an ORM and an Abstraction Layer?8.2. Symfony's Database Schema8.2.1. Schema Example8.2.2. Basic Schema Syntax8.3. Model Classes8.3.1. Base and Custom Classes8.3.2. Object and Peer Classes8.4. Accessing Data8.4.1. Retrieving the Column Value8.4.2. Retrieving Related Records8.4.3. Saving and Deleting Data8.4.4. Retrieving Records by Primary Key8.4.5. Retrieving Records with Criteria8.4.6. Using Raw SQL Queries8.4.7. Using Special Date Columns8.5. Database Connections8.6. Extending the Model8.6.1. Adding New Methods8.6.2. Overriding Existing Methods8.6.3. Using Model Behaviors8.7. Extended Schema Syntax8.7.1. Attributes8.7.2. Column Details8.7.3. Foreign Keys8.7.4. Indexes8.7.5. Empty Columns8.7.6. I18n Tables8.7.7. Beyond the schema.yml: The schema.xml8.8. Don't Create the Model Twice8.8.1. Building a SQL Database Structure Based on an Existing Schema8.8.2. Generating a YAML Data Model from an Existing Database8.9. Summary
3. Special Features
9. Links and the Routing System
9.1. What Is Routing?9.1.1. URLs As Server Instructions9.1.2. URLs As Part of the Interface9.1.3. How It Works9.2. URL Rewriting9.3. Link Helpers9.3.1. Hyperlinks, Buttons, and Forms9.3.2. Link Helper Options9.3.3. Fake GET and POST Options9.3.4. Forcing Request Parameters As GET Variables9.3.5. Using Absolute Paths9.4. Routing Configuration9.4.1. Rules and Patterns9.4.2. Pattern Constraints9.4.3. Setting Default Values9.4.4. Speeding Up Routing by Using the Rule Name9.4.5. Adding an .html Extension9.4.6. Creating Rules Without routing.yml9.5. Dealing with Routes in Actions9.6. Summary
10. Forms
10.1. Form Helpers10.1.1. Main Form Tag10.1.2. Standard Form Elements10.1.3. Date Input Widgets10.1.4. Rich Text Editing10.1.5. Country and Language Selection10.2. Form Helpers for Objects10.2.1. Populating Drop-Down Lists with Objects10.2.2. Creating a Drop-Down List Based on a Foreign Key Column10.2.3. Updating Objects10.3. Form Validation10.3.1. Validators10.3.2. Validation File10.3.3. Redisplaying the Form10.3.4. Displaying the Error Messages in the Form10.3.5. Repopulating the Form10.3.6. Standard Symfony Validators10.3.7. Named Validators10.3.8. Restricting the Validation to a Method10.3.9. What Does a Validation File Look Like?10.4. Complex Validation10.4.1. Creating a Custom Validator10.4.2. Using Array Syntax for Form Fields10.4.3. Executing a Validator on an Empty Field10.5. Summary
11. Ajax Integration
11.1. Basic JavaScript Helpers11.1.1. JavaScript in Templates11.1.2. Updating a DOM Element11.1.3. Graceful Degradation11.2. Prototype11.3. Ajax Helpers11.3.1. Ajax Link11.3.2. Ajax-Driven Forms11.3.3. Periodically Calling Remote Functions11.4. Remote Call Parameters11.4.1. Updating Distinct Elements According to the Response Status11.4.2. Updating an Element According to Position11.4.3. Updating an Element According to a Condition11.4.4. Determining the Ajax Request Method11.4.5. Authorizing Script Execution11.4.6. Creating Callbacks11.5. Creating Visual Effects11.6. JSON11.7. Performing Complex Interactions with Ajax11.7.1. Autocompletion11.7.2. Drag-and-Drop11.7.3. Sortable Lists11.7.4. Edit in Place11.8. Summary
12. Caching
12.1. Caching the Response12.1.1. Global Cache Settings12.1.2. Caching an Action12.1.3. Caching a Partial, Component, or Component Slot12.1.4. Caching a Template Fragment12.1.5. Configuring the Cache Dynamically12.1.6. Using the Super Fast Cache12.2. Removing Items from the Cache12.2.1. Clearing the Entire Cache12.2.2. Clearing Selective Parts of the Cache12.2.3. Cache Directory Structure12.2.4. Clearing the Cache Manually12.3. Testing and Monitoring Caching12.3.1. Building a Staging Environment12.3.2. Monitoring Performance12.3.3. Benchmarking12.3.4. Identifying Cache Parts12.4. HTTP 1.1 and Client-Side Caching12.4.1. Adding an ETag Header to Avoid Sending Unchanged Content12.4.2. Adding a Last-Modified Header to Avoid Sending Still Valid Content12.4.3. Adding Vary Headers to Allow Several Cached Versions of a Page12.4.4. Adding a Cache-Control Header to Allow Client-Side Caching12.5. Summary
13. I18N and L10N
13.1. User Culture13.1.1. Setting the Default Culture13.1.2. Changing the Culture for a User13.1.3. Determining the Culture Automatically13.2. Standards and Formats13.2.1. Outputting Data in the User's Culture13.2.2. Getting Data from a Localized Input13.3. Text Information in the Database13.3.1. Creating Localized Schema13.3.2. Using the Generated I18n Objects13.4. Interface Translation13.4.1. Configuring Translation13.4.2. Using the Translation Helper13.4.3. Using Dictionary Files13.4.4. Managing Dictionaries13.4.5. Handling Other Elements Requiring Translation13.4.6. Handling Complex Translation Needs13.4.7. Calling the Translation Helper Outside a Template13.5. Summary
4. Development Tools
14. Generators
14.1. Code Generation Based on the Model14.1.1. Scaffolding and Administration14.1.2. Initiating or Generating Code14.1.3. Example Data Model14.2. Scaffolding14.2.1. Generating a Scaffolding14.2.2. Initiating a Scaffolding14.3. Administration14.3.1. Initiating an Administration Module14.3.2. A Look at the Generated Code14.3.3. Introducing the generator.yml Configuration File14.4. Generator Configuration14.4.1. Fields14.4.2. View Customization14.4.3. List View-Specific Customization14.4.4. Edit View-Specific Customization14.4.5. Dealing with Foreign Keys14.4.6. Adding Interactions14.4.7. Form Validation14.4.8. Restricting User Actions Using Credentials14.5. Modifying the Presentation of Generated Modules14.5.1. Using a Custom Style Sheet14.5.2. Creating a Custom Header and Footer14.5.3. Customizing the Theme14.6. Summary
15. Unit and Functional Testing
15.1. Automated Tests15.1.1. Unit and Functional Tests15.1.2. Test-Driven Development15.1.3. The Lime Testing Framework15.2. Unit Tests15.2.1. What Do Unit Tests Look Like?15.2.2. Unit Testing Methods15.2.3. Testing Parameters15.2.4. The test-unit Task15.2.5. Stubs, Fixtures, and Autoloading15.3. Functional Tests15.3.1. What Do Functional Tests Look Like?15.3.2. Browsing with the sfTestBrowser Object15.3.3. Using Assertions15.3.4. Using CSS Selectors15.3.5. Working in the Test Environment15.3.6. The test-functional Task15.4. Test Naming Practices15.5. Special Testing Needs15.5.1. Executing Tests in a Test Harness15.5.2. Accessing a Database15.5.3. Testing the Cache15.5.4. Testing Interactions on the Client15.6. Summary
16. Application Management Tools
16.1. Logging16.1.1. PHP Logs16.1.2. Symfony Logs16.2. Debugging16.2.1. Symfony Debug Mode16.2.2. Symfony Exceptions16.2.3. Xdebug Extension16.2.4. Web Debug Toolbar16.2.5. Manual Debugging16.3. Populating a Database16.3.1. Fixture File Syntax16.3.2. Launching the Import16.3.3. Using Linked Tables16.4. Deploying Applications16.4.1. Freezing a Project for FTP Transfer16.4.2. Using rsync for Incremental File Transfer16.4.3. Ignoring Irrelevant Files16.4.4. Managing a Production Application16.5. Summary
17. Extending Symfony
17.1. Mixins17.1.1. Understanding Multiple Inheritance17.1.2. Mixing Classes17.1.3. Declaring a Class As Extendable17.1.4. Registering Extensions17.1.5. Extending with More Precision17.2. Factories17.3. Bridges to Other Framework Components17.4. Plug-Ins17.4.1. Finding Symfony Plug-Ins17.4.2. Installing a Plug-In17.4.3. Anatomy of a Plug-In17.4.4. How to Write a Plug-In17.5. Summary
5. Becoming a Symfony Expert
18. Performance
18.1. Tweaking the Server18.2. Tweaking the Model18.2.1. Optimizing Propel Integration18.2.2. Limiting the Number of Objects to Hydrate18.2.3. Minimizing the Number of Queries with Joins18.2.4. Avoid Using Temporary Arrays18.2.5. Bypassing the ORM18.2.6. Speeding Up the Database18.3. Tweaking the View18.3.1. Using the Fastest Code Fragment18.3.2. Speeding Up the Routing Process18.3.3. Skipping the Template18.3.4. Restricting the Default Helpers18.3.5. Compressing the Response18.4. Tweaking the Cache18.4.1. Clearing Selective Parts of the Cache18.4.2. Generating Cached Pages18.4.3. Using a Database Storage System for Caching18.4.4. Bypassing Symfony18.4.5. Caching the Result of a Function Call18.4.6. Caching Data in the Server18.5. Deactivating the Unused Features18.6. Optimizing Your Code18.6.1. Core Compilation18.6.2. The sfOptimizer Plug-In18.7. Summary
19. Mastering Symfony's Configuration Files
19.1. Symfony Settings19.1.1. Default Modules and Actions19.1.2. Optional Feature Activation19.1.3. Feature Configuration19.2. Extending the Autoloading Feature19.3. Custom File Structure19.3.1. The Basic File Structure19.3.2. Customizing the File Structure19.3.3. Modifying the Project Web Root19.3.4. Linking to Symfony Libraries19.4. Understanding Configuration Handlers19.4.1. Default Configuration Handlers19.4.2. Adding Your Own Handler19.5. Controlling PHP Settings19.6. Summary
A. GNU Free Documentation License

Content preview from The Definitive Guide to symfony

Chapter 6. Inside the Controller Layer

In symfony, the controller layer, which contains the code linking the business logic and the presentation, is split into several components that you use for different purposes:

The front controller is the unique entry point to the application. It loads the configuration and determines the action to execute.
Actions contain the applicative logic. They check the integrity of the request and prepare the data needed by the presentation layer.
The request, response, and session objects give access to the request parameters, the response headers, and the persistent user data. They are used very often in the controller layer.
Filters are portions of code executed for every request, before or after the action. For example, ...

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The Definitive Guide to symfony

by François Zaninotto, Fabien Potencier

Chapter 6. Inside the Controller Layer

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