Presentation

Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Symfony Book.

First released in October, 2005, by Fabien Potencier, CEO of Sensio Based on 3 key ideas:

MVC: Model View Controller

ORM: Object Relational Mapping

Templating System

Major features

Easy to install and configure
Database engine-independent
Simple to use, in most cases, but still flexible enough

Automated Features

The built-in internationalization layer
templates/layouts
Forms
Output escaping
Cache management
Authentication and credential features
Routing and smart URLs
Built-in e-mail and API management
Plug-ins
Ajax interactions

Development Tools

Code-generation
unit and functional testing.
Debug panel
Live configuration changes
Logging features

OOP: Object Oriented Programming
ORM: Object Relational Mapping
RAD: Rapid Application Development
KISS: Kip it Simple, Stupid
TDD: Test-Driven Development
PEAR: PHP Extension and Application Repository

ORM

Lots of benefits:

Encapsulation, database engine independece, etc.
Extendable
public function getTotal()
{
$total = 0;
foreach ($this->getItems() as $item)
{
$total += $item->getPrice() * $item->getQuantity();
}
return $total;
}

public function getName()
{
return $this->getFirstName().' '.$this->getLastName();
}

Rapid Application Development (RAD)

Clients change their mind continiously
Need an output as soon as possible

Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY)

Do fragmentation as much as possible

Kiss, Keep it simple, stupid

Albert Einstein: everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler
Antoine de Saint Exupéry: It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away

Key Classes

sfController, sfResponse, sfRequest

Code Organization

Applications, Modules, and Actions

File Structure

apps/
frontend/
backend/
cache/
config/
data/
sql/
doc/
lib/
model/
log/
plugins/
test/
bootstrap/
unit/
functional/
web/
css/
images/
js/
uploads/

Application's file structure

apps/
[application name]/
config/
i18n/
lib/
modules/
templates/
layout.php

Module's file structure

apps/
[application name]/
modules/
[module name]/
actions/
actions.class.php
config/
lib/
templates/
indexSuccess.php

Web folder structure

web/
css/
images/
js/
uploads/

Parameter Holder

$request->getParameterHolder()->set('foo', 'bar');
echo $request->getParameterHolder()->get('foo');
=> 'bar'

or

$request->setParameter('foo', 'bar');
echo $request->getParameter('foo');
=> 'bar'

// The 'foobar' parameter is not defined, so the getter returns an empty value
echo $request->getParameter('foobar');
=> null

// A default value can be used by putting the getter in a condition
if ($request->hasParameter('foobar'))
{
echo $request->getParameter('foobar');
}
else
{
echo 'default';
}
=> default

// But it is much faster to use the second getter argument for that
echo $request->getParameter('foobar', 'default');
=> default

Allowing namespace

$user->setAttribute('foo', 'bar1');
$user->setAttribute('foo', 'bar2', 'my/name/space');
echo $user->getAttribute('foo');
=> 'bar1'
echo $user->getAttribute('foo', null, 'my/name/space');
=> 'bar2'

You can use it

class MyClass
{
protected $parameterHolder = null;

public function initialize($parameters = array())
{
$this->parameterHolder = new sfParameterHolder();
$this->parameterHolder->add($parameters);
}

public function getParameterHolder()
{
return $this->parameterHolder;
}
}

Constants

// Instead of PHP constants,
define('FOO', 'bar');
echo FOO;

// symfony uses the sfConfig object
sfConfig::set('foo', 'bar');
echo sfConfig::get('foo');

Class Autoloading

include 'classes/MyClass.php';
$myObject = new MyClass();

replaced by

$myObject = new MyClass();