Start using Symfony2 in 10 minutes! This chapter will walk you through some of the most important concepts behind Symfony2 and explain how you can get started quickly by showing you a simple project in action.
If you've used a web framework before, you should feel right at home with Symfony2. If not, welcome to a whole new way of developing web applications!
Tip
Want to learn why and when you need to use a framework? Read the "Symfony in 5 minutes" document.
First, check that you have installed and configured a Web server (such as Apache) with PHP 5.3.3 or higher.
Tip
If you have PHP 5.4, you could use the built-in web server to start trying things out. We'll tell you how to start the built-in web server :ref:`after downloading Symfony<quick-tour-big-picture-built-in-server>`.
Ready? Start by downloading the "Symfony2 Standard Edition": a Symfony :term:`distribution` that is preconfigured for the most common use cases and also contains some code that demonstrates how to use Symfony2 (get the archive with the vendors included to get started even faster).
After unpacking the archive under your web server root directory (if you'll
use the built-in PHP web server, you can unpack it anywhere), you should
have a Symfony/ directory that looks like this:
www/ <- your web root directory
Symfony/ <- the unpacked archive
app/
cache/
config/
logs/
Resources/
bin/
src/
Acme/
DemoBundle/
Controller/
Resources/
...
vendor/
symfony/
doctrine/
...
web/
app.php
...
Note
If you are familiar with Composer, you can download Composer and then
run the following command instead of downloading the archive (replacing
2.3.0 with the latest Symfony release like 2.3.1):
$ php composer.phar create-project symfony/framework-standard-edition Symfony 2.3.0If you have PHP 5.4, you can use the built-in web server:
# check your PHP CLI configuration
$ php app/check.php
# run the built-in web server
$ php app/console server:runThen the URL to your application will be "http://localhost:8000/app_dev.php"
The built-in server should be used only for development purpose, but it can help you to start your project quickly and easily.
If you're using a traditional web server like Apache, your URL depends on
your configuration. If you've unzipped Symfony under your web root into a
Symfony directory, then the URL to your application will be:
"http://localhost/Symfony/web/app_dev.php".
Note
Read more in our :doc:`/cookbook/configuration/web_server_configuration` section.
Symfony2 comes with a visual server configuration tester to help avoid some headaches that come from Web server or PHP misconfiguration. Use the following URL to see the diagnostics for your machine:
http://localhost/config.php
Note
All of the example URLs assume you've setup your web server to point
directly to the web/ directory of your new project, which is different
and a bit more advanced than the process shown above. So, the URL on your
machine will vary - e.g. http://localhost:8000/config.php
or http://localhost/Symfony/web/config.php. See the
:ref:`above section<quick-tour-big-picture-built-in-server>` for details
on what your URL should be and use it below in all of the examples.
If there are any outstanding issues listed, correct them. You might also tweak your configuration by following any given recommendations. When everything is fine, click on "Bypass configuration and go to the Welcome page" to request your first "real" Symfony2 webpage:
http://localhost/app_dev.php/
Symfony2 should welcome and congratulate you for your hard work so far!
One of the main goals of a framework is to ensure Separation of Concerns. This keeps your code organized and allows your application to evolve easily over time by avoiding the mixing of database calls, HTML tags, and business logic in the same script. To achieve this goal with Symfony, you'll first need to learn a few fundamental concepts and terms.
Tip
Want proof that using a framework is better than mixing everything in the same script? Read the ":doc:`/book/from_flat_php_to_symfony2`" chapter of the book.
The distribution comes with some sample code that you can use to learn more about the main Symfony2 concepts. Go to the following URL to be greeted by Symfony2 (replace Fabien with your first name):
http://localhost/app_dev.php/demo/hello/Fabien
What's going on here? Let's dissect the URL:
app_dev.php: This is a :term:`front controller`. It is the unique entry point of the application and it responds to all user requests;/demo/hello/Fabien: This is the virtual path to the resource the user wants to access.
Your responsibility as a developer is to write the code that maps the user's
request (/demo/hello/Fabien) to the resource associated with it
(the Hello Fabien! HTML page).
Symfony2 routes the request to the code that handles it by trying to match the
requested URL (i.e. the virtual path) against some configured paths. By default,
these paths (called routes) are defined in the app/config/routing.yml configuration
file. When you're in the dev :ref:`environment<quick-tour-big-picture-environments>` -
indicated by the app_**dev**.php front controller - the app/config/routing_dev.yml
configuration file is also loaded. In the Standard Edition, the routes to
these "demo" pages are imported from this file:
# app/config/routing_dev.yml
# ...
# AcmeDemoBundle routes (to be removed)
_acme_demo:
resource: "@AcmeDemoBundle/Resources/config/routing.yml"This imports a routing.yml file that lives inside the AcmeDemoBundle:
# src/Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/config/routing.yml
_welcome:
path: /
defaults: { _controller: AcmeDemoBundle:Welcome:index }
_demo:
resource: "@AcmeDemoBundle/Controller/DemoController.php"
type: annotation
prefix: /demo
# ...The first three lines (after the comment) define the code that is executed
when the user requests the "/" resource (i.e. the welcome page you saw
earlier). When requested, the AcmeDemoBundle:Welcome:index controller
will be executed. In the next section, you'll learn exactly what that means.
Tip
The Symfony2 Standard Edition uses :doc:`YAML</components/yaml/yaml_format>` for its configuration files, but Symfony2 also supports XML, PHP, and annotations natively. The different formats are compatible and may be used interchangeably within an application. Also, the performance of your application does not depend on the configuration format you choose as everything is cached on the very first request.
A controller is a fancy name for a PHP function or method that handles incoming
requests and returns responses (often HTML code). Instead of using the
PHP global variables and functions (like $_GET or header()) to manage
these HTTP messages, Symfony uses objects: :ref:`Request<component-http-foundation-request>`
and :ref:`Response<component-http-foundation-response>`. The simplest possible
controller might create the response by hand, based on the request:
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
$name = $request->query->get('name');
return new Response('Hello '.$name, 200, array('Content-Type' => 'text/plain'));
Note
Symfony2 embraces the HTTP Specification, which are the rules that govern all communication on the Web. Read the ":doc:`/book/http_fundamentals`" chapter of the book to learn more about this and the added power that this brings.
Symfony2 chooses the controller based on the _controller value from the
routing configuration: AcmeDemoBundle:Welcome:index. This string is the
controller logical name, and it references the indexAction method from
the Acme\DemoBundle\Controller\WelcomeController class:
// src/Acme/DemoBundle/Controller/WelcomeController.php
namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Controller;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
class WelcomeController extends Controller
{
public function indexAction()
{
return $this->render('AcmeDemoBundle:Welcome:index.html.twig');
}
}
Tip
You could have used the full class and method name -
Acme\DemoBundle\Controller\WelcomeController::indexAction - for the
_controller value. But if you follow some simple conventions, the
logical name is shorter and allows for more flexibility.
The WelcomeController class extends the built-in Controller class,
which provides useful shortcut methods, like the
:ref:`render()<controller-rendering-templates>` method that loads and renders
a template (AcmeDemoBundle:Welcome:index.html.twig). The returned value
is a Response object populated with the rendered content. So, if the need
arises, the Response can be tweaked before it is sent to the browser:
public function indexAction()
{
$response = $this->render('AcmeDemoBundle:Welcome:index.txt.twig');
$response->headers->set('Content-Type', 'text/plain');
return $response;
}
No matter how you do it, the end goal of your controller is always to return
the Response object that should be delivered back to the user. This Response
object can be populated with HTML code, represent a client redirect, or even
return the contents of a JPG image with a Content-Type header of image/jpg.
Tip
Extending the Controller base class is optional. As a matter of fact,
a controller can be a plain PHP function or even a PHP closure.
":doc:`The Controller</book/controller>`" chapter of the book tells you
everything about Symfony2 controllers.
The template name, AcmeDemoBundle:Welcome:index.html.twig, is the template
logical name and it references the Resources/views/Welcome/index.html.twig
file inside the AcmeDemoBundle (located at src/Acme/DemoBundle).
The Bundles section below will explain why this is useful.
Now, take a look at the routing configuration again and find the _demo
key:
# src/Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/config/routing.yml
# ...
_demo:
resource: "@AcmeDemoBundle/Controller/DemoController.php"
type: annotation
prefix: /demoSymfony2 can read/import the routing information from different files written
in YAML, XML, PHP, or even embedded in PHP annotations. Here, the file's
logical name is @AcmeDemoBundle/Controller/DemoController.php and refers
to the src/Acme/DemoBundle/Controller/DemoController.php file. In this
file, routes are defined as annotations on action methods:
// src/Acme/DemoBundle/Controller/DemoController.php
use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\Route;
use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\Template;
class DemoController extends Controller
{
/**
* @Route("/hello/{name}", name="_demo_hello")
* @Template()
*/
public function helloAction($name)
{
return array('name' => $name);
}
// ...
}
The @Route() annotation defines a new route with a path of
/hello/{name} that executes the helloAction method when matched. A
string enclosed in curly brackets like {name} is called a placeholder. As
you can see, its value can be retrieved through the $name method argument.
Note
Even if annotations are not natively supported by PHP, you can use them in Symfony2 as a convenient way to configure the framework behavior and keep the configuration next to the code.
If you take a closer look at the controller code, you can see that instead of
rendering a template and returning a Response object like before, it
just returns an array of parameters. The @Template() annotation tells
Symfony to render the template for you, passing in each variable of the array
to the template. The name of the template that's rendered follows the name
of the controller. So, in this example, the AcmeDemoBundle:Demo:hello.html.twig
template is rendered (located at src/Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/views/Demo/hello.html.twig).
Tip
The @Route() and @Template() annotations are more powerful than
the simple examples shown in this tutorial. Learn more about "annotations in controllers"
in the official documentation.
The controller renders the src/Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/views/Demo/hello.html.twig
template (or AcmeDemoBundle:Demo:hello.html.twig if you use the logical name):
{# src/Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/views/Demo/hello.html.twig #}
{% extends "AcmeDemoBundle::layout.html.twig" %}
{% block title "Hello " ~ name %}
{% block content %}
<h1>Hello {{ name }}!</h1>
{% endblock %}By default, Symfony2 uses Twig as its template engine but you can also use traditional PHP templates if you choose. The next chapter will introduce how templates work in Symfony2.
You might have wondered why the :term:`Bundle` word is used in many names you have seen so far. All the code you write for your application is organized in bundles. In Symfony2 speak, a bundle is a structured set of files (PHP files, stylesheets, JavaScripts, images, ...) that implements a single feature (a blog, a forum, ...) and which can be easily shared with other developers. As of now, you have manipulated one bundle, AcmeDemoBundle. You will learn more about bundles in the :doc:`last chapter of this tutorial</quick_tour/the_architecture>`.
Now that you have a better understanding of how Symfony2 works, take a closer look at the bottom of any Symfony2 rendered page. You should notice a small bar with the Symfony2 logo. This is the "Web Debug Toolbar", and it is a Symfony2 developer's best friend!
But what you see initially is only the tip of the iceberg; click on the hexadecimal number (the session token) to reveal yet another very useful Symfony2 debugging tool: the profiler.
Note
You can also get more information quickly by hovering over the items on the Web Debug Toolbar, or clicking them to go to their respective pages in the profiler.
When loaded and enabled (by default in the dev :ref:`environment<quick-tour-big-picture-environments-intro>`),
the Profiler provides a web interface for a huge amount of information recorded
on each request, including logs, a timeline of the request, GET or POST parameters,
security details, database queries and more!
Of course, it would be unwise to have these tools enabled when you deploy
your application, so by default, the profiler is not enabled in the prod
environment.
So what is an environment? An :term:`Environment` is a simple string (e.g.
dev or prod) that represents a group of configuration that's used
to run your application.
Typically, you put your common configuration in config.yml and override
where necessary in the configuration for each environment. For example:
# app/config/config_dev.yml
imports:
- { resource: config.yml }
web_profiler:
toolbar: true
intercept_redirects: falseIn this example, the dev environment loads the config_dev.yml configuration
file, which itself imports the global config.yml file and then modifies it by
enabling the web debug toolbar.
When you visit the app_dev.php file in your browser, you're executing
your Symfony application in the dev environment. To visit your application
in the prod environment, visit the app.php file instead. The demo
routes in our application are only available in the dev environment, but
if those routes were available in the prod environment, you would be able
to visit them in the prod environment by going to:
http://localhost/app.php/demo/hello/Fabien
If instead of using php's built-in webserver, you use Apache with mod_rewrite
enabled and take advantage of the .htaccess file Symfony2 provides
in web/, you can even omit the app.php part of the URL. The default
.htaccess points all requests to the app.php front controller:
http://localhost/demo/hello/Fabien
Note
Note that the two URLs above are provided here only as examples of
how a URL looks like when the prod front controller is used. If you
actually try them in an out-of-the-box installation of Symfony Standard Edition,
you will get a 404 error since the AcmeDemoBundle is enabled only in
the dev environment and its routes imported from app/config/routing_dev.yml.
For more details on environments, see ":ref:`Environments & Front Controllers<page-creation-environments>`".
Congratulations! You've had your first taste of Symfony2 code. That wasn't so hard, was it? There's a lot more to explore, but you should already see how Symfony2 makes it really easy to implement web sites better and faster. If you are eager to learn more about Symfony2, dive into the next section: ":doc:`The View<the_view>`".