Chapter 17 - Extending Symfony

Eventually, you will need to alter symfony's behavior. Whether you need to modify the way a certain class behaves or add your own custom features, themoment will inevitably happen because all clients have specific requirements that no framework can forecast. Actually, this situation is so common that symfony provides a mechanism to extend existing classes at runtime, beyond simple class inheritance. You can even replace the core symfony classes by modifying the factories settings. Once you have built an extension, you can easily package it as a plug-in, so that it can be reused in other applications, or by other symfony users.

Events

PHP does not support multiple inheritance, which means it is not possible to have a class extend more than one other class. Also it is not possible to add new methods to an existing class or override existing methods. To ease these two limitations and to make the framework truly extendable, symfony introduces an event system, inspired by the Cocoa notification center, and based on the Observer design pattern.

Understanding Events

Some of the symfony classes "notify the dispatcher of an event" at various moments of their life. For instance, when the user changes their culture, the user object notifies that a change_culture event has occurred. This is like a shout in the project's space, saying: "I'm doing that. Do whatever you want about it".

You can decide to do something special when an event is fired. For instance, you could save the user culture to a database table each time the change_culture event occurs. In order to do so, you need to register an event listener, in other words you must declare a function that will be called when the event occurs. Listing 17-1 shows how to register a listener on the user's change_culture event.

Listing 17-1 - Registering an Event Listener

$dispatcher->connect('user.change_culture', 'changeUserCulture');
 
function changeUserCulture(sfEvent $event)
{
  $user = $event->getSubject();
  $culture = $event['culture'];
 
  // do something with the user culture
}

All events and listener registrations are managed by a special object called the event dispatcher. This object is available from everywhere in symfony by way of the ProjectConfiguration instance, and most symfony objects offer a getEventDispatcher() method to get direct access to it. Using the dispatcher's connect() method, you can register any PHP callable (either a class method or a function) to be called when an event occurs. The first argument of connect() is the event identifier, which is a string composed of a namespace and a name. The second argument is a PHP callable.

$dispatcher = ProjectConfiguration::getActive()->getEventDispatcher();

Once the function is registered with the event dispatcher, it waits until the event is fired. The event dispatcher keeps a record of all event listeners, and knows which ones to call when an event occurs. When calling these methods or functions, the dispatcher passes them an sfEvent object as a parameter.

The event object stores information about the notified event. The event notifier can be retrieved thanks to the getSubject() method, and the event parameters are accessible by using the event object as an array (for example, $event['culture'] can be used to retrieve the culture parameter passed by sfUser when notifying user.change_culture).

To wrap up, the event system allows you to add abilities to an existing class or modify its methods at runtime, without using inheritance.

Notifying an Event listener

Just like symfony classes notify that events have occurred, your own classes can offer runtime extensibility and notify of events at certain occasions. For instance, let's say that your application requests several third-party web services, and that you have written an sfRestRequest class to wrap the REST logic of these requests. A good idea would be to trigger an event each time this class makes a new request. This would make the addition of logging or caching capabilities easier in the future. Listing 17-2 shows the code you need to add to an existing fetch() method to make it notify an event listener.

Listing 17-2 - Notifying an Event listener

class sfRestRequest
{
  protected $dispatcher = null;
 
  public function __construct(sfEventDispatcher $dispatcher)
  {
    $this->dispatcher = $dispatcher;
  }
 
  /**
   * Makes a query to an external web service
   */
  public function fetch($uri, $parameters = array())
  {
    // Notify the dispatcher of the beginning of the fetch process
    $this->dispatcher->notify(new sfEvent($this, 'rest_request.fetch_prepare', array(
      'uri'        => $uri,
      'parameters' => $parameters
    )));
 
    // Make the request and store the result in a $result variable
    // ...
 
    // Notify the dispatcher of the end of the fetch process
    $this->dispatcher->notify(new sfEvent($this, 'rest_request.fetch_success', array(
      'uri'        => $uri,
      'parameters' => $parameters,
      'result'     => $result
    )));
 
    return $result;
  }
}

The notify() method of the event dispatcher expects an sfEvent object as an argument; this is the very same object that is passed to the event listeners. This object always carries a reference to the notifier (that's why the event instance is initialized with this) and an event identifier. Optionally, it accepts an associative array of parameters, giving listeners a way to interact with the notifier's logic.

Notifying the dispatcher of an Event Until a Listener handles it

By using the notify() method, you make sure that all the listeners registered on the notifying event are executed. However, in some cases you need to allow a listener to stop the event and prevent further listeners from being notified about it. In this case, you should use notifyUntil() instead of notify(). The dispatcher will then execute all listeners until one returns true, and then stop the event notification. In other words, notifyUntil() is like a shout in the project space saying: "I'm doing that. If somebody cares, then I won't tell anybody else". Listing 17-3 shows how to use this technique in combination with a magic __call() method to add methods to an existing class at runtime.

Listing 17-3 - Notifying of an Event Until a Listener Returns True

class sfRestRequest
{
  // ...
 
  public function __call($method, $arguments)
  {
    $event = $this->dispatcher->notifyUntil(new sfEvent($this, 'rest_request.method_not_found', array(
      'method'    => $method, 
      'arguments' => $arguments
    )));
    if (!$event->isProcessed())
    {
      throw new sfException(sprintf('Call to undefined method %s::%s.', get_class($this), $method));
    }
 
    return $event->getReturnValue();
  }
}

An event listener registered on the rest_request.method_not_found event can test the requested $method and decide to handle it, or pass to the next event listener callable. In Listing 17-4, you can see how a third party class can add put() and delete() methods to the sfRestRequest class at runtime with this trick.

Listing 17-4 - Handling a "Notify Until" Event type

class frontendConfiguration extends sfApplicationConfiguration
{
  public function configure()
  {
    // ...
 
    // Register our listener
    $this->dispatcher->connect('rest_request.method_not_found', array('sfRestRequestExtension', 'listenToMethodNotFound'));
  }
}
 
class sfRestRequestExtension
{
  static public function listenToMethodNotFound(sfEvent $event)
  {
    switch ($event['method'])
    {
      case 'put':
        self::put($event->getSubject(), $event['arguments']);
 
        return true;
      case 'delete':
        self::delete($event->getSubject(), $event['arguments']);
 
        return true;
      default:
        return false;
    }
  }
 
  static protected function put($restRequest, $arguments)
  {
    // Make a put request and store the result in a $result variable
    // ...
 
    $event->setReturnValue($result);
  }
 
  static protected function delete($restRequest, $arguments)
  {
    // Make a delete request and store the result in a $result variable
    // ...
 
    $event->setReturnValue($result);
  }
}

In practice, notifyUntil() offers multiple inheritance capabilities, or rather mixins (the addition of methods from third-party classes to an existing class), to PHP. You can now "inject" new methods to objects that you can't extend by way of inheritance. And this happens at runtime. You are not limited by the Object Oriented capabilities of PHP anymore when you use symfony.

Changing the Return Value of a Method

You can probably imagine how a listener can not only use the information given by an event, but also modify it, to alter the original logic of the notifier. If you want to allow this, you should use the filter() method of the event dispatcher rather than notify(). All event listeners are then called with two parameters: the event object, and the value to filter. Event listeners must return the value, whether they altered it or not. Listing 17-5 shows how filter() can be used to filter a response from a web service and escape special characters in that response.

Listing 17-5 - Notifying of and Handling a Filter Event

class sfRestRequest
{
  // ...
 
  /**
   * Make a query to an external web service
   */
  public function fetch($uri, $parameters = array())
  {
    // Make the request and store the result in a $result variable
    // ...
 
    // Notify of the end of the fetch process
    return $this->dispatcher->filter(new sfEvent($this, 'rest_request.filter_result', array(
      'uri'        => $uri,
      'parameters' => $parameters,
    )), $result)->getReturnValue();
  }
}
 
// Add escaping to the web service response
$dispatcher->connect('rest_request.filter_result', 'rest_htmlspecialchars');
 
function rest_htmlspecialchars(sfEvent $event, $result)
{
  return htmlspecialchars($result, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
}

Built-In Events

Many of symfony's classes have built-in events, allowing you to extend the framework without necessarily changing the classes themselves. Table 17-1 lists these events, together with their types and arguments.

Table 17-1 - Symfony's Events

You are free to register event listeners on any of these events. Just make sure that listener callables return a Boolean when registered on a notifyUntil event type, and that they return the filtered value when registered on a filter event type.

Note that the event namespaces don't necessarily match the class role. For instance, all symfony classes notify of an application.log event when they need something to appear in the log files (and in the web debug toolbar):

$dispatcher->notify(new sfEvent($this, 'application.log', array($message)));

Your own classes can do the same and also notify symfony events when it makes sense to do so.

Where To Register Listeners?

Event listeners need to be registered early in the life of a symfony request. In practice, the right place to register event listeners is in the application configuration class. This class has a reference to the event dispatcher that you can use in the configure() method. Listing 17-6 shows how to register a listener on one of the rest_request events of the above examples.

Listing 17-6 - Registering a Listener in the Application Configuration Class, in apps/frontend/config/ApplicationConfiguration.class.php

class frontendConfiguration extends sfApplicationConfiguration
{
  public function configure()
  {
    // ...
 
    $this->dispatcher->connect('rest_request.method_not_found', array('sfRestRequestExtension', 'listenToMethodNotFound'));
  }
}

Plug-ins (see below) can register their own event listeners. They should do it in the plug-in's config/config.php script, which is executed during application initialization and offers access to the event dispatcher through $this->dispatcher.

Factories

A factory is the definition of a class for a certain task. Symfony relies on factories for its core features such as the controller and session capabilities. For instance, when the framework needs to create a new request object, it searches in the factory definition for the name of the class to use for that purpose. The default factory definition for requests is sfWebRequest, so symfony creates an object of this class in order to deal with requests. The great advantage of using a factory definition is that it is very easy to alter the core features of the framework: Just change the factory definition, and symfony will use your custom request class instead of its own.

The factory definitions are stored in the factories.yml configuration file. Listing 17-7 shows the default factory definition file. Each definition is made of the name of an autoloaded class and (optionally) a set of parameters. For instance, the session storage factory (set under the storage: key) uses a session_name parameter to name the cookie created on the client computer to allow persistent sessions.

Listing 17-7 - Default Factories File, in frontend/config/factories.yml

-
prod:
  logger:
    class:   sfNoLogger
    param:
      level:   err
      loggers: ~

test:
  storage:
    class: sfSessionTestStorage
    param:
      session_path: %SF_TEST_CACHE_DIR%/sessions

  response:
    class: sfWebResponse
    param:
      send_http_headers: false

  mailer:
    param:
      delivery_strategy: none

dev:
  mailer:
    param:
      delivery_strategy: none

all:
  routing:
    class: sfPatternRouting
    param:
      generate_shortest_url:            true
      extra_parameters_as_query_string: true

  view_cache_manager:
    class: sfViewCacheManager
    param:
      cache_key_use_vary_headers: true
      cache_key_use_host_name:    true

The best way to change a factory is to create a new class inheriting from the default factory and to add new methods to it. For instance, the user session factory is set to the myUser class (located in frontend/lib/) and inherits from sfUser. Use the same mechanism to take advantage of the existing factories. Listing 17-8 shows an example of a new factory for the request object.

Listing 17-8 - Overriding Factories

// Create a myRequest.class.php in an autoloaded directory,
// For instance in frontend/lib/
<?php
 
class myRequest extends sfRequest
{
  // Your code here
}
 
// Declare this class as the request factory in factories.yml
all:
  request:
    class: myRequest

Plug-Ins

You will probably need to reuse a piece of code that you developed for one of your symfony applications. If you can package this piece of code into a single class, no problem: Drop the class in one of the lib/ folders of another application and the autoloader will take care of the rest. But if the code is spread across more than one file, such as a complete new theme for the administration generator or a combination of JavaScript files and helpers to automate your favorite visual effect, just copying the files is not the best solution.

Plug-ins offer a way to package code disseminated in several files and to reuse this code across several projects. Into a plug-in, you can package classes, filters, event listeners, helpers, configuration, tasks, modules, schemas and model extensions, fixtures, web assets, etc. Plug-ins are easy to install, upgrade, and uninstall. They can be distributed as a .tgz archive, a PEAR package, or a simple checkout of a code repository. The PEAR packaged plug-ins have the advantage of managing dependencies, being easier to upgrade and automatically discovered. The symfony loading mechanisms take plug-ins into account, and the features offered by a plug-in are available in the project as if the plug-in code was part of the framework.

So, basically, a plug-in is a packaged extension for a symfony project. With plug-ins, not only can you reuse your own code across applications, but you can also reuse developments made by other contributors and add third-party extensions to the symfony core.

Finding Symfony Plug-Ins

The symfony project website contains a section dedicated to symfony plug-ins and accessible with the following URL:

/plugins/

Each plug-in listed there has its own page, with detailed installation instructions and documentation.

Some of these plug-ins are contributions from the community, and some come from the core symfony developers. Among the latter, you will find the following:

• sfFeed2Plugin: Automates the manipulation of RSS and Atom feeds
• sfThumbnailPlugin: Creates thumbnails--for instance, for uploaded images
• sfMediaLibraryPlugin: Allows media upload and management, including an extension for rich text editors to allow authoring of images inside rich text
• sfGuardPlugin: Provides authentication, authorization, and other user management features above the standard security feature of symfony
• sfSuperCachePlugin: Writes pages in cache directory under the web root to allow the web server to serve them as fast as possible
• sfErrorLoggerPlugin: Logs every 404 and 500 error in a database and provides an administration module to browse these errors
• sfSslRequirementPlugin: Provides SSL encryption support for actions

You should regularly check out the symfony plugin section, because new plug-ins are added all the time, and they bring very useful shortcuts to many aspects of web application programming.

Apart from the symfony plugin section, the other ways to distribute plug-ins are to propose a plug-ins archive for download, to host them in a PEAR channel, or to store them in a public version control repository.

Installing a Plug-In

The plug-in installation process differs according to the way it's packaged. Always refer to the included README file and/or installation instructions on the plug-in download page.

Plug-ins are installed applications on a per-project basis. All the methods described in the following sections result in putting all the files of a plug-in into a myproject/plugins/pluginName/ directory.

PEAR Plug-Ins

Plug-ins listed on the symfony plugin section can be bundled as PEAR packages and made available via the official symfony plugins PEAR channel: plugins.symfony-project.org. To install such a plug-in, use the plugin:install task with a plugin name, as shown in Listing 17-9.

Listing 17-9 - Installing a Plug-In from the Official symfony plugins PEAR Channel

$ cd myproject
$ php symfony plugin:install pluginName

Alternatively, you can download the plug-in and install it from the disk. In this case, use the path to the package archive, as shown in Listing 17-10.

Listing 17-10 - Installing a Plug-In from a Downloaded PEAR Package

$ cd myproject
$ php symfony plugin:install /home/path/to/downloads/pluginName.tgz

Some plug-ins are hosted on external PEAR channels. Install them with the plugin:install task, and don't forget to register the channel and mention the channel name, as shown in Listing 17-11.

Listing 17-11 - Installing a Plug-In from a PEAR Channel

$ cd myproject
$ php symfony plugin:add-channel channel.symfony.pear.example.com
$ php symfony plugin:install --channel=channel.symfony.pear.example.com pluginName

These three types of installation all use a PEAR package, so the term "PEAR plug-in" will be used indiscriminately to talk about plug-ins installed from the symfony plugins PEAR channel, an external PEAR channel, or a downloaded PEAR package.

The plugin:install task also takes a number of options, as shown on Listing 17-12.

Listing 17-12 - Installing a Plug-In with some Options

$ php symfony plugin:install --stability=beta pluginName
$ php symfony plugin:install --release=1.0.3 pluginName
$ php symfony plugin:install --install-deps pluginName

Archive Plug-Ins

Some plug-ins come as a simple archive of files. To install those, just unpack the archive into your project's plugins/ directory. If the plug-in contains a web/ subdirectory, don't forget to run the plugin:publish-assets command to create the corresponding symlink under the main web/ folder as shown in listing 17-13. Finally, don't forget to clear the cache.

Listing 17-13 - Installing a Plug-In from an Archive

$ cd plugins
$ tar -zxpf myPlugin.tgz
$ cd ..
$ php symfony plugin:publish-assets
$ php symfony cc

Installing Plug-Ins from a Version Control Repository

Plug-ins sometimes have their own source code repository for version control. You can install them by doing a simple checkout in the plugins/ directory, but this can be problematic if your project itself is under version control.

Alternatively, you can declare the plug-in as an external dependency so that every update of your project source code also updates the plug-in source code. For instance, Subversion stores external dependencies in the svn:externals property. So you can add a plug-in by editing this property and updating your source code afterwards, as Listing 17-14 demonstrates.

Listing 17-14 - Installing a Plug-In from a Source Version Repository

$ cd myproject
$ svn propedit svn:externals plugins
  pluginName   http://svn.example.com/pluginName/trunk
$ svn up
$ php symfony plugin:publish-assets
$ php symfony cc

Activating a Plug-In Module

Some plug-ins contain whole modules. The only difference between module plug-ins and classical modules is that module plug-ins don't appear in the myproject/apps/frontend/modules/ directory (to keep them easily upgradeable). They also need to be activated in the settings.yml file, as shown in Listing 17-15.

Listing 17-15 - Activating a Plug-In Module, in frontend/config/settings.yml

all:
  .settings:
    enabled_modules:  [default, sfMyPluginModule]

This is to avoid a situation where the plug-in module is mistakenly made available for an application that doesn't require it, which could open a security breach. Think about a plug-in that provides frontend and backend modules. You will need to enable the frontend modules only in your frontend application, and the backend ones only in the backend application. This is why plug-in modules are not activated by default.

Listing the Installed Plug-Ins

If a glance at your project's plugins/ directory can tell you which plug-ins are installed, the plugin:list task tells you even more: the version number and the channel name of each installed plug-in (see Listing 17-16).

Listing 17-16 - Listing Installed Plug-Ins

$ cd myproject
$ php symfony plugin:list

Installed plugins:
sfPrototypePlugin               1.0.0-stable # plugins.symfony-project.com (symfony)
sfSuperCachePlugin              1.0.0-stable # plugins.symfony-project.com (symfony)
sfThumbnail                     1.1.0-stable # plugins.symfony-project.com (symfony)

Upgrading and Uninstalling Plug-Ins

To uninstall a PEAR plug-in, call the plugin:uninstall task from the root project directory, as shown in Listing 17-17. You must prefix the plug-in name with its installation channel if it's different from the default symfony channel (use the plugin:list task to determine this channel).

Listing 17-17 - Uninstalling a Plug-In

$ cd myproject
$ php symfony plugin:uninstall sfSuperCachePlugin
$ php symfony cc

To uninstall an archive plug-in or an SVN plug-in, remove manually the plug-in files from the project plugins/ and web/ directories, and clear the cache.

To upgrade a plug-in, either use the plugin:upgrade task (for a PEAR plug-in) or do an svn update (if you grabbed the plug-in from a version control repository). Archive plug-ins can't be upgraded easily.

Anatomy of a Plug-In

Plug-ins are written using the PHP language. If you can understand how an application is organized, you can understand the structure of the plug-ins.

Plug-In File Structure

A plug-in directory is organized more or less like a project directory. The plug-in files have to be in the right directories in order to be loaded automatically by symfony when needed. Have a look at the plug-in file structure description in Listing 17-18.

Listing 17-18 - File Structure of a Plug-In

pluginName/
  config/
    routing.yml        // Routing config file
    app.yml            // Plugin default settings      
    *schema.yml        // Data schema
    *schema.xml
    config.php         // Specific plug-in configuration
  data/
    generator/
      sfPropelAdmin
        */             // Administration generator themes
          template/
          skeleton/
    fixtures/
      *.yml            // Fixtures files
  lib/
    *.php              // Classes
    helper/
      *.php            // Helpers
    model/
      *.php            // Model classes
    task/
      *Task.class.php  // CLI tasks
  modules/
    */                 // Modules
      actions/
        actions.class.php
      config/
        module.yml
        view.yml
        security.yml
      templates/
        *.php
  web/
    *                  // Assets

Plug-In Abilities

Plug-ins can contain a lot of things. Their content is automatically taken into account by your application at runtime and when calling tasks with the command line. But for plug-ins to work properly, you must respect a few conventions:

• Database schemas are detected by the propel- tasks. When you call propel:build --classes or doctrine:build --classes in your project, you rebuild the project model and all the plug-in models with it. Note that a Propel plug-in schema must always have a package attribute under the shape plugins.pluginName. lib.model, as shown in Listing 17-19. If you use Doctrine, the task will automatically generate the classes in the plugin directory.

Listing 17-19 - Example of Propel Schema Declaration in a Plug-In, in myPlugin/config/schema.yml

propel:
  _attributes:    { package: plugins.myPlugin.lib.model }
  my_plugin_foobar:
    _attributes:    { phpName: myPluginFoobar }
      id:
      name:           { type: varchar, size: 255, index: unique }
      ...

• The plug-in configuration is to be included in the plug-in configuration class (PluginNameConfiguration.class.php). This file is executed after the application and project configuration, so symfony is already bootstrapped at that time. You can use this file, for instance, to extend existing classes with event listeners and behaviors.
• Fixtures files located in the plug-in data/fixtures/ directory are processed by the propel:data-load or doctrine:data-load task.
• Custom classes are autoloaded just like the ones you put in your project lib/ folders.
• Helpers are automatically found when you call use_helper() in templates. They must be in ahelper/ subdirectory of one of the plug-in's lib/ directory.
• If you use Propel, model classes in myplugin/lib/model/ specialize the model classes generated by the Propel builder (in myplugin/lib/model/om/ and myplugin/lib/model/map/). They are, of course, autoloaded. Be aware that you cannot override the generated model classes of a plug-in in your own project directories.
• If you use Doctrine, the ORM generates the plugins base classes in myplugin/lib/model/Plugin*.class.php, and concrete classes in lib/model/myplugin/. This means that you can easily override the model classes in your application.
• Tasks are immediately available to the symfony command line as soon as the plug-in is installed. A plugin can either add new tasks, or override an existing one. It is a best practice to use the plug-in name as a namespace for the task. Type php symfony to see the list of available tasks, including the ones added by plug-ins.
• Modules provide new actions accessible from the outside, provided that you declare them in the enabled_modules setting in your application.
• Web assets (images, scripts, style sheets, etc.) are made available to the server. When you install a plug-in via the command line, symfony creates a symlink to the project web/ directory if the system allows it, or copies the content of the module web/ directory into the project one. If the plug-in is installed from an archive or a version control repository, you have to copy the plug-in web/ directory by hand (as the README bundled with the plug-in should mention).

// in plugins/myPlugin/config/config.php
$this->dispatcher->connect('routing.load_configuration', array('myPluginRouting', 'listenToRoutingLoadConfigurationEvent'));
 
// in plugins/myPlugin/lib/myPluginRouting.php
class myPluginRouting
{
  static public function listenToRoutingLoadConfigurationEvent(sfEvent $event)
  {
    $routing = $event->getSubject();
    // add plug-in routing rules on top of the existing ones
    $routing->prependRoute('my_route', new sfRoute('/my_plugin/:action', array('module' => 'myPluginAdministrationInterface')));
  }
}

Manual Plug-In Setup

There are some elements that the plugin:install task cannot handle on its own, and which require manual setup during installation:

• Custom routing should be added either by the plugin code on the routing.load_configuration event or manually to the application routing.yml.
• Custom filters have to be added manually to the application filters.yml.
• Custom factories have to be added manually to the application factories.yml.

Plug-ins with such manual setup should embed a README file describing installation in detail.

Customizing a Plug-In for an Application

Whenever you want to customize a plug-in, never alter the code found in the plugins/ directory. If you do so, you will lose all your modifications when you upgrade the plug-in. For customization needs, plug-ins provide custom settings, and they support overriding.

Well-designed plug-ins use settings that can be changed in the application app.yml, as Listing 17-20 demonstrates.

Listing 17-20 - Customizing a Plug-In That Uses the Application Configuration

// example plug-in code
$foo = sfConfig::get('app_my_plugin_foo', 'bar');
 
// Change the 'foo' default value ('bar') in the application app.yml
all:
  my_plugin:
    foo:       barbar

The module settings and their default values are often described in the plug-in's README file.

You can replace the default contents of a plug-in module by creating a module of the same name in your own application. It is not really overriding, since the elements in your application are used instead of the ones of the plug-in. It works fine if you create templates and configuration files of the same name as the ones of the plug-ins.

On the other hand, if a plug-in wants to offer a module with the ability to override its actions, the actions.class.php in the plug-in module must be empty and inherit from an autoloading class, so that the method of this class can be inherited as well by the actions.class.php of the application module. See Listing 17-21 for an example.

Listing 17-21 - Customizing a Plug-In Action

// In myPlugin/modules/mymodule/lib/myPluginmymoduleActions.class.php
class myPluginmymoduleActions extends sfActions
{
  public function executeIndex()
  {
    // Some code there
  }
}
 
// In myPlugin/modules/mymodule/actions/actions.class.php
 
require_once dirname(__FILE__).'/../lib/myPluginmymoduleActions.class.php';
 
class mymoduleActions extends myPluginmymoduleActions
{
  // Nothing
}
 
// In frontend/modules/mymodule/actions/actions.class.php
class mymoduleActions extends myPluginmymoduleActions
{
  public function executeIndex()
  {
    // Override the plug-in code there
  }
}

#Original schema, in plugins/myPlugin/config/schema.yml
Article:
  columns:
    name: string(50)

#Project schema, in config/schema.yml
Article:
  columns:
    stripped_title: string(50)

# Resulting schema, merged internally and used for model and sql generation
Article:
  columns:
    name: string(50)
    stripped_title: string(50)

# Original schema, in plugins/myPlugin/config/schema.yml
propel:
  article:
    _attributes:    { phpName: Article }
    title:          varchar(50)
    user_id:        { type: integer }
    created_at:

# Custom schema, in myPlugin_schema.custom.yml
propel:
  article:
    _attributes:    { phpName: Article, package: foo.bar.lib.model }
    stripped_title: varchar(50)

# Resulting schema, merged internally and used for model and sql generation
propel:
  article:
    _attributes:    { phpName: Article, package: foo.bar.lib.model }
    title:          varchar(50)
    user_id:        { type: integer }
    created_at:
    stripped_title: varchar(50)

How to Write a Plug-In

Only plug-ins packaged as PEAR packages can be installed with the plugin:install task. Remember that such plug-ins can be distributed via the symfony plugin section, a PEAR channel, or a simple file download. So if you want to author a plug-in, it is better to publish it as a PEAR package than as a simple archive. In addition, PEAR packaged plug-ins are easier to upgrade, can declare dependencies, and automatically deploy assets in the web/ directory.

File Organization

Suppose you have developed a new feature and want to package it as a plug-in. The first step is to organize the files logically so that the symfony loading mechanisms can find them when needed. For that purpose, you have to follow the structure given in Listing 17-18. Listing 17-22 shows an example of file structure for an sfSamplePlugin plug-in.

Listing 17-22 - Example List of Files to Package As a Plug-In

sfSamplePlugin/
  README
  LICENSE
  config/
    schema.yml
    sfSamplePluginConfiguration.class.php
  data/
    fixtures/
      fixtures.yml
  lib/
    model/
      sfSampleFooBar.php
      sfSampleFooBarPeer.php
    task/
      sfSampleTask.class.php
    validator/
      sfSampleValidator.class.php
  modules/
    sfSampleModule/
      actions/
        actions.class.php
      config/
        security.yml
      lib/
        BasesfSampleModuleActions.class.php
      templates/
        indexSuccess.php
  web/
    css/
      sfSampleStyle.css
    images/
      sfSampleImage.png

For authoring, the location of the plug-in directory (sfSamplePlugin/ in Listing 17-22) is not important. It can be anywhere on the disk.

Creating the package.xml File

The next step of plug-in authoring is to add a package.xml file at the root of the plug-in directory. The package.xml follows the PEAR syntax. Have a look at a typical symfony plug-in package.xml in Listing 17-23.

Listing 17-23 - Example package.xml for a Symfony Plug-In

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<package packagerversion="1.4.6" version="2.0" xmlns="http://pear.php.net/dtd/package-2.0" xmlns:tasks="http://pear.php.net/dtd/tasks-1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://pear.php.net/dtd/tasks-1.0 http://pear.php.net/dtd/tasks-1.0.xsd http://pear.php.net/dtd/package-2.0 http://pear.php.net/dtd/package-2.0.xsd">
 <name>sfSamplePlugin</name>
 <channel>plugins.symfony-project.org</channel>
 <summary>symfony sample plugin</summary>
 <description>Just a sample plugin to illustrate PEAR packaging</description>
 <lead>
  <name>Fabien POTENCIER</name>
  <user>fabpot</user>
  <email>fabien.potencier@symfony-project.com</email>
  <active>yes</active>
 </lead>
 <date>2006-01-18</date>
 <time>15:54:35</time>
 <version>
  <release>1.0.0</release>
  <api>1.0.0</api>
 </version>
 <stability>
  <release>stable</release>
  <api>stable</api>
 </stability>
 <license uri="/license">MIT license</license>
 <notes>-</notes>
 <contents>
  <dir name="/">
   <file role="data" name="README" />
   <file role="data" name="LICENSE" />
   <dir name="config">
    <!-- model -->
    <file role="data" name="schema.yml" />
    <file role="data" name="ProjectConfiguration.class.php" />
   </dir>
   <dir name="data">
    <dir name="fixtures">
     <!-- fixtures -->
     <file role="data" name="fixtures.yml" />
    </dir>
   </dir>
   <dir name="lib">
    <dir name="model">
     <!-- model classes -->
     <file role="data" name="sfSampleFooBar.php" />
     <file role="data" name="sfSampleFooBarPeer.php" />
    </dir>
    <dir name="task">
     <!-- tasks -->
     <file role="data" name="sfSampleTask.class.php" />
    </dir>
    <dir name="validator">
     <!-- validators -->
     <file role="data" name="sfSampleValidator.class.php" />
    </dir>
   </dir>
   <dir name="modules">
    <dir name="sfSampleModule">
     <file role="data" name="actions/actions.class.php" />
     <file role="data" name="config/security.yml" />
     <file role="data" name="lib/BasesfSampleModuleActions.class.php" />
     <file role="data" name="templates/indexSuccess.php" />
    </dir>
   </dir>
   <dir name="web">
    <dir name="css">
     <!-- stylesheets -->
     <file role="data" name="sfSampleStyle.css" />
    </dir>
    <dir name="images">
     <!-- images -->
     <file role="data" name="sfSampleImage.png" />
    </dir>
   </dir>
  </dir>
 </contents>
 <dependencies>
  <required>
   <php>
    <min>5.2.4</min>
   </php>
   <pearinstaller>
    <min>1.4.1</min>
   </pearinstaller>
   <package>
    <name>symfony</name>
    <channel>pear.symfony-project.com</channel>
    <min>1.3.0</min>
    <max>1.5.0</max>
    <exclude>1.5.0</exclude>
   </package>
  </required>
 </dependencies>
 <phprelease />
 <changelog />
</package>

The interesting parts here are the <contents> and the <dependencies> tags, described next. For the rest of the tags, there is nothing specific to symfony, so you can refer to the PEAR online manual for more details about the package.xml format.

Contents

The <contents> tag is the place where you must describe the plug-in file structure. This will tell PEAR which files to copy and where. Describe the file structure with <dir> and <file> tags. All <file> tags must have a role="data" attribute. The <contents> part of Listing 17-23 describes the exact directory structure of Listing 17-22.

Plug-In Dependencies

Plug-ins are designed to work with a given set of versions of PHP, PEAR, symfony, PEAR packages, or other plug-ins. Declaring these dependencies in the <dependencies> tag tells PEAR to check that the required packages are already installed, and to raise an exception if not.

You should always declare dependencies on PHP, PEAR, and symfony, at least the ones corresponding to your own installation, as a minimum requirement. If you don't know what to put, add a requirement for PHP 5.2.4, PEAR 1.4, and symfony 1.3.

It is also recommended to add a maximum version number of symfony for each plug-in. This will cause an error message when trying to use a plug-in with a more advanced version of the framework, and this will oblige the plug-in author to make sure that the plug-in works correctly with this version before releasing it again. It is better to have an alert and to download an upgrade rather than have a plug-in fail silently.

If you specify plugins as dependencies, users will be able to install your plugin and all its dependencies with a single command:

$ php symfony plugin:install --install-deps sfSamplePlugin

Building the Plug-In

The PEAR component has a command (pear package) that creates the .tgz archive of the package, provided you call the command shown in Listing 17-24 from a directory containing a package.xml.

Listing 17-24 - Packaging a Plug-In As a PEAR Package

$ cd sfSamplePlugin
$ pear package

Package sfSamplePlugin-1.0.0.tgz done

Once your plug-in is built, check that it works by installing it yourself, as shown in Listing 17-25.

Listing 17-25 - Installing the Plug-In

$ cp sfSamplePlugin-1.0.0.tgz /home/production/myproject/
$ cd /home/production/myproject/
$ php symfony plugin:install sfSamplePlugin-1.0.0.tgz

According to their description in the <contents> tag, the packaged files will end up in different directories of your project. Listing 17-26 shows where the files of the sfSamplePlugin should end up after installation.

Listing 17-26 - The Plug-In Files Are Installed on the plugins/ and web/ Directories

plugins/
  sfSamplePlugin/
    README
    LICENSE
    config/
      schema.yml
      sfSamplePluginConfiguration.class.php
    data/
      fixtures/
        fixtures.yml
    lib/
      model/
        sfSampleFooBar.php
        sfSampleFooBarPeer.php
      task/
        sfSampleTask.class.php
      validator/
        sfSampleValidator.class.php
    modules/
      sfSampleModule/
        actions/
          actions.class.php
        config/
          security.yml
        lib/
          BasesfSampleModuleActions.class.php
        templates/
          indexSuccess.php
web/
  sfSamplePlugin/               ## Copy or symlink, depending on system
    css/
      sfSampleStyle.css
    images/
      sfSampleImage.png

Test the way the plug-in behaves in your application. If it works well, you are ready to distribute it across projects--or to contribute it to the symfony community.

Hosting Your Plug-In in the Symfony Project Website

A symfony plug-in gets the broadest audience when distributed by the symfony-project.org website. Even your own plug-ins can be distributed this way, provided that you follow these steps:

1. Make sure the README file describes the way to install and use your plug-in, and that the LICENSE file gives the license details. Format your README with the Markdown Formatting syntax.
2. Create a symfony account (/user/new) and create the plugin (/plugins/new).
3. Create a PEAR package for your plug-in by calling the pear package command, and test it. The PEAR package must be named sfSamplePlugin-1.0.0.tgz (1.0.0 is the plug-in version).
4. Upload your PEAR package (sfSamplePlugin-1.0.0.tgz).
5. Your plugin must now appear in the list of plugins.

If you follow this procedure, users will be able to install your plug-in by simply typing the following command in a project directory:

$ php symfony plugin:install sfSamplePlugin

Naming Conventions

To keep the plugins/ directory clean, ensure all the plug-in names are in camelCase and end with Plugin (for example, shoppingCartPlugin, feedPlugin, and so on). Before naming your plug-in, check that there is no existing plug-in with the same name.

Plug-ins should always include a LICENSE file describing the conditions of use and the chosen license. You are also advised to add a README file to explain the version changes, purpose of the plug-in, its effect, installation and configuration instructions, etc.

Summary

The symfony classes notify events that give them the ability to be modified at the application level. The event mechanism allows multiple inheritance and class overriding at runtime even if the PHP limitations forbid it. So you can easily extend the symfony features, even if you have to modify the core classes for that--the factories configuration is here for that.

Many such extensions already exist; they are packaged as plug-ins, to be easily installed, upgraded, and uninstalled through the symfony command line. Creating a plug-in is as easy as creating a PEAR package, and provides reusability across applications.

The symfony plugin section contains many plug-ins, and you can even add your own. So now that you know how to do it, we hope that you will enhance the symfony core with a lot of useful extensions!