sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install php5-dev apache2-dev build-essential apache2-threaded-dev php-pear
sudo pecl install apc

Then update /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini and add this line:

extension=apc.so

Have fun!

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You might ask, why not just use setLabels?

Firstly, if you already set required fields to true/false in setValidators, why do you have to add the stars manually again in setLabels? It just doesn't make sense!

Secondly, using setLabels to add stars is interfering with language translation.

Thirdly, this is I believe a proper (or proper-ish?) way to do this kind of things with sfForm.

OK, let's get into it!

Below is an example on how to use it in your form class

<?php
 
class yourForm extends sfForm
{
  function configure()
  {
    $this->setWidgets(array(
      'first_name'           => new sfWidgetFormInput(array(), array('maxlength' => 50)),
      'last_name'            => new sfWidgetFormInput(array(), array('maxlength' => 50)),
      'email'                => new sfWidgetFormInput(array(), array('maxlength' => 128)),
    ));
 
    $this->setValidators(array(
      'first_name'           => new sfValidatorString(array('max_length' => 50, 'required' => true)),
      'last_name'            => new sfValidatorString(array('max_length' => 50, 'required' => false)),
      'email'                => new sfValidatorEmail(array('max_length' => 128, 'required' => true)),
    ));
 
    $decorator = new sidFormFormatter($this->widgetSchema, $this->validatorSchema);
    $this->widgetSchema->addFormFormatter('custom', $decorator);
    $this->widgetSchema->setFormFormatterName('custom');    
  }
}

This is optional but you might want to add the following into your css (e.g.: main.css)

em.required {font-size:1.2em;font-weight:bold;margin:0px;padding:0px;}
label.required {font-weight:bold;}

Last but most importantly, save this formatter class in your project lib folder as sidFormFormatter.php:

<?php
 
class sidFormFormatter extends sfWidgetFormSchemaFormatter {
 
  protected 
    $rowFormat = "\n%error%\n<div class=\"formRow\">\n<div class=\"formLabel\">%label%</div>\n<div class=\"formField\">%field%\n%help%</div></div>\n%hidden_fields%",
    $helpFormat = '<div class="fieldHelp">%help%</div>', 
    $errorRowFormat = "<div>\n%errors%<br /></div>\n", 
    $errorListFormatInARow = "<ul>%errors%</ul>\n", 
    $errorRowFormatInARow =  "<li class=\"error\">&darr; %error% &darr;</li>\n", 
    $namedErrorRowFormatInARow = "<li class=\"error\">&darr; %error% &darr;</li>\n", 
    $decoratorFormat = "%content%";
 
  /**
   * @var sfValidatorSchema
   */
  protected $validatorSchema = null;
 
  /**
   * @var array
   */
  protected $params = array();
 
  /**
   * Constructor
   *
   * Params:
   *  - "required_label_class_name" css class name for label tag when the field is required field, the default is 'required'.
   *  - "required_label_format" default is '%label% <em class="required">*</em>'.
   *
   * @param sfWidgetFormSchema $widgetSchema
   * @param sfValidatorSchema $validatorSchema
   * @param array $params
   */
  public function __construct(sfWidgetFormSchema $widgetSchema, sfValidatorSchema $validatorSchema, $params = array())
  {
    $this->validatorSchema = $validatorSchema;
    $this->params = $params;
    parent::__construct($widgetSchema);
  }
 
  /**
   * Returns parameter identified with $name or if does not exist, returns $default.
   *
   * @param string $name
   * @param mixed $default
   * @return mixed
   */
  public function getParameter($name, $default=null)
  {
    if (!isset($this->params[$name]))
    {
      return $default;
    }
 
    return $this->params[$name];
  }
 
  /**
   * Generates a label for the given field name.
   *
   * @param  string $name        The field name
   * @param  array  $attributes  Optional html attributes for the label tag
   *
   * @return string The label tag
   */
  public function generateLabel($name, $attributes = array())
  {
    $is_required = false;
    if ( $this->validatorSchema and isset($this->validatorSchema[$name]) )
    {
      $validator = $this->validatorSchema[$name];
      /* @var $validator sfValidatorBase */
 
      if ( $validator->getOption('required') )
      {
        $class_name = $this->getParameter('required_label_class_name', 'required');
        if (isset($attributes['class'])) $attributes['class'] .= ' '.$class_name; else $attributes['class'] = $class_name;
        $is_required = true;
      }
    }
 
    $s = parent::generateLabel($name, $attributes);
 
    if ($is_required)
    {
      $format = $this->getParameter('required_label_format', '%label% <em class="required">*</em>');
      $s = str_replace('%label%', $s, $format);
    }
 
    return $s;
  }
}

That's it! Don't forget to "symfony cc" (clear cache).

Happy coding!

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Most of us use sfGuardPlugin with Symfony Framework for user management (login stuffs). It is a great, popular, and de facto plugin for doing user management in Symfony.

Here's the thing, by default, sfGuardPlugin does login using usernames, not emails. But for many projects, it is preferable and more suitable to use email for login.

In this article I would like to discuss a way to implement email login using Symfony. I've only tried this in Symfony 1.0, but this might/should work on 1.1 and 1.2. And I would be very interested to know your experience if you try this method on Symfony 1.1 or Symfony 1.2

AVOID USING USERNAME FIELD FOR STORING EMAIL!

Although this is the quickest short cut, I believe that in the longer run, it is not worth it. It is a potential security and privacy issue (explained below), and your sfGuardPlugin is 'not compatible' with all the other plugins (also explained below).

Storing email in username field is a potential security and privacy issue. This is because username and email are two columns of different purposes.

Username tend to be displayed publicly, while email should never be displayed publicly. If you store email in username field, you have to be really careful when using other plugins that depend on sfGuardPlugin, because chances are, they’d display the email stored in username field publicly.

It is also not ‘natural’ to code things like: $this->sendEmailTo($user->getUsername());

Try to use sfGuardPlugin and sfSimpleForum, and store email in username field, and you’ll understand what I mean.

So, here is my proposed way of implementing login using email

Firstly, I've implemented this with Symfony 1.0! This might/should work with 1.1 and 1.2 but I have not tried it. If you do try it on 1.1 or 1.2, I would be interested to know your experience.

Secondly, you need to install sfGuardPlugin in your project first.

1. Add few columns in user profile in schema.yml

sf_guard_user_profile:
  _attributes: { phpName: sfGuardUserProfile }
  id:
  user_id: { type: integer, foreignTable: sf_guard_user, foreignReference: id, required: true, onDelete: cascade }
  first_name: { type: varchar(30), required: true }
  last_name: { type: varchar(30), required: true }
  email: { type: varchar(128), required: true, unique: true }

Then build your model, e.g.: symfony propel-build-all (WARNING: propel-build-all will wipe out all the records in the database of your project!!!!)

2. Add retrieveByEmail in sfGuardUserProfilePeer.php

public static function retrieveByEmail($email)
{
  $c = new Criteria();
  $c->add(self::EMAIL, $email);
  $c->addJoin(self::USER_ID, sfGuardUserPeer::ID);
  $c->add(sfGuardUserPeer::IS_ACTIVE, true);
 
  return self::doSelectOne($c);
}

3. Create new validator for checking login using email rather than username

Save this as "sfGuardUserByEmailValidator.class.php" in lib folder of your project.

<?php
 
class sfGuardUserByEmailValidator extends sfValidator
{
  public function initialize($context, $parameters = null)
  {
    // initialize parent
    parent::initialize($context);
 
    // set defaults
    $this->getParameterHolder()->set('username_error', 'Email or password is not valid.');
    $this->getParameterHolder()->set('password_field', 'password');
    $this->getParameterHolder()->set('remember_field', 'remember');
 
    $this->getParameterHolder()->add($parameters);
 
    return true;
  }
 
  public function execute(&$value, &$error)
  {
    $password_field = $this->getParameterHolder()->get('password_field');
    $password = $this->getContext()->getRequest()->getParameter($password_field);
 
    $remember = false;
    $remember_field = $this->getParameterHolder()->get('remember_field');
    $remember = $this->getContext()->getRequest()->getParameter($remember_field);
 
    $email = $value;
 
    $profile = sfGuardUserProfilePeer::retrieveByEmail($email);
    if (!$profile) return false;
 
    $user = $profile->getsfGuardUser();
 
    // user exists and active?
    if ($user and $user->getIsActive())
    {
      // password is ok?
      if ($user->checkPassword($password))
      {
      $this->getContext()->getUser()->signIn($user, $remember);
 
      return true;
    }
  }
 
  $error = $this->getParameterHolder()->get('username_error');
 
  return false;
  }
}

4. Override sfGuardAuth config

Save this as 'apps/frontend/modules/sfGuardAuth/validate/signin.yml' (create folders if not already exist in your project).

methods:
  post: [username, password]
 
names:
  username:
  required:         true
  required_msg:     Your username is required
  validators:       [userValidator]
 
password:
  required:         true
  required_msg:     Your password is required
 
userValidator:
  class:            sfGuardUserByEmailValidator
  param:
    password_field: password
    remember_field: remember

5. Execute symfony cc.

That's it for the login mechanism.

What to store in the username column then?

I use up to 10 characters of first name, 3 characters of last name, and a 3-digits random number for usernames.

Use this function to generate unique username for a new user:

private function findUniqueUsername($first_name, $last_name)
{
  srand(time());
  $username = $this->getRequestParameter('first_name').'_'.substr($this->getRequestParameter('last_name'), 0, 1).'_'.rand(1, 1000);
 
  while (sfGuardUserPeer::retrieveByUsername($username))
  {
    $username = $this->getRequestParameter('first_name').'_'.substr($this->getRequestParameter('last_name'), 0, 1).'_'.rand(1, 1000);
  }
 
  return $username;
}

Closing

Phew this is a long article! Please do share with me if you try this on Symfony 1.1 or 1.2.

* Update: This article is for Symfony 1.0, for Symfony 1.2 implementation go to Symfony 1.2, Propel, and sfGuardPlugin: email login

Happy Symfonying!!

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$c->addSelectColumn('sum('.dbTimeBlockPeer::TOTAL.') as total');
$rs = dbTimeBlockPeer::doSelectRS($c);
while ($rs->next()) { $total = $rs->getInt(1); }

And a real world example from symfony users mailing list (Symfony 1.2):

ACTION:

$cu = new Criteria();
$cu->clearSelectColumns();
$cu->add(DokumentLinikiPeer::DOKUMENT_ID, $this->getUser()->getAttribute('dokument_id'));
$cu->addSelectColumn(DokumentLinikiPeer::STAWKI_VAT);

$cu->addSelectColumn('sum('.DokumentLinikiPeer::KWOTA_NETTO.') as
SumOfNetto');

$cu->addSelectColumn('sum('.DokumentLinikiPeer::KWOTA_BRUTTO.') as
SumOfBrutto');

$cu->addGroupByColumn(DokumentLinikiPeer::STAWKI_VAT);

$sumy = DokumentLinikiPeer::doSelectStmt($cu);

$total = array();

while ($row = $sumy->fetch(PDO::FETCH_NUM)) {

$total[] = array(
'vat' => StawkiVatPeer::retrieveByPK($row[0]), // VAT
'netto' => $row[1], // SumOfNetto
'brutto' => $row[2], // SumOfBrutto
);

}

TEMPLATE:
<?php foreach($sumy as $suma): ?>
<tr>
<td><?php echo $suma['vat']; ?></td>
<td><?php echo $suma['netto']; ?></td>
<td><?php echo $suma['brutto']; ?></td>
</tr>
<?php endforeach ?>

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So now, when I want to create a Symfony 1.0 project, I would just execute "$ symfony10 init-project myproject". And then in the project I would use "$ ./symfony cc" instead of "$ symfony cc".

It worths mentioning that I think this trick is good for development environment but "svn:externals" trick or Symfony freeze are better for production/deployment as each project will have their own copy of Symfony Framework.

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• Yahoo! Bookmarks, what more to say, it's that giant company.
• del.icio.us, the popular web 2.0 social bookmarking website.
• travelbug.co.nz, one of Trademe's websites.
• w3counter.com, providing detailed web stats to nearly 5,000 websites. That's over 300 database queries per second, over a billion page views being analyzed, over 28 real-time reports for each site, AJAX, RSS feeds, and lots more running on this framework. All on a single server.

To be continued ... I'll keep adding to this list of websites built using Symfony Framework

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Symptom

When you have dot in your Symfony URL, e.g.: "http://localhost/mysymfonyapp/module1/action1/param1/do.do.do", your web application suddenly behaves incorrectly. Either error or something. After debugging, you'd find that the erratic behavior is caused by parameter 'param1' not containing 'do.do.do' (as it should do ... does?).

Cause

I found that the problem is caused by Symfony's web/.htaccess. Especially the following line (red):

# we skip all files with .something
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} \..+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.html$
RewriteRule .* - [L]

The above htaccess rule basically (as the comment says) skip all URL with dot in it, because it suppose to be URL to image, css, or javascript files. But sometime we do have dot in URL other than for accessing those files, for example if we pass email address in the URL.

Solution

There are two possible solutions that I know of.

One solution is to use question mark formatted parameter (e.g.: "module/action?email=bla@blu.com" as opposed to "module/action/email/bla@blu.com") as pointed out here. I have not tried this myself but seems like a good solution.

The next possible solution is to modify web/.htaccess to suit your situation. For example, in my situation, I needed the dot because it was for email address. So I added the following line (green) which basically tells apache not to skip the URL even if it has dot if it has @ sign:

# we skip all files with .something
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} \..+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !@.+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.html$
RewriteRule .* - [L]

I hope that helps...

Update:

• Thanks to Nicolas Perriault from Symfony users mailing list (he developed symfonians.net). He uses this .htaccess (http://pastie.org/330755) for symfonians.net. I did a quick test and seems to work nicely.
  

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I became known as Java man, because 1) I was born in Java island, 2) I program Java, 3) I can speak Javanese, and 4) even though unrelated, I also do Javascript.

On the other hand, I have also been doing a bit of PHP4. Coming from a Java background, PHP4 Object Oriented seems backward, but I love the flexibility of PHP and how it feels right for developing websites.

So when PHP5 with java like OO features was released, I was very ecstatic (in a normal kind of way). And since then I've been looking for a PHP framework that takes full advantage of that java like OO features. I tried few frameworks before currently settled with Symfony Framework.

Symfony Framework is a full-stack (comprehensive and complete) framework written in PHP5 that take advantage of the Java like OO of PHP5.

Here's few things that I like about Symfony ...

Well known PHP libraries in one framework

Symfony Framework does not reinvent the wheel like many other frameworks, instead it integrated the best breed, well known, and matured PHP libraries like PEAR, Propel, Phing, and more. I've used PEAR in many occasions before started with Symfony. I've also used ORM (what Propel is) and have used Apache Ant (what Phing is based on). So although I still had to spend time learning Symfony, I was already familiar with its components.

Plugins

Symfony supports plugin and hence there are so many plugins available for Symfony. There are plugins for YUI, Extjs, Doctrine, Smarty, Prototype, JQuery, and more.

There are also high level plugins to add complete features to a Symfony project like:

• User management plugin
• CMS plugin
• Blog plugin
• Forum plugin
• Wiki plugin
• Media assets management plugin
• Lucene plugin
• And many many more

All of those are available to every Symfony developers list of arsenal. Plugins can be installed into Symfony project manually or via PEAR.

Scafolding

One of the best features of Symfony is its CLI commands. You can start a Symfony project in seconds. Just type a command line and all the skeleton of your project is created for you (including skeleton for your project's unit tests). No need to reinvent your own file structures, but if you're not happy with Symfony's default file structures, you can change it.

Works well with Eclipse

This one is quite a biggie to me. Eclipse is arguably the best free Java based IDE that has grown (so big) to support many (many!) programming languages including PHP. Personally, I use Eclipse PDT.

I particularly like the way Eclipse provides auto code completion for Symfony. It is able to parse the classes in your Symfony project and provides auto code completion for them. Notepad just doesn't cut it any longer since I've used Eclipse.

However, there are tricks that you need to know to get Eclipse PDT to code completion all of your Symfony classes (will write in another post).

Used by big companies

I'd still use Symfony even if there's no big companies are using it but it's good to know that big companies are starting to notice this framework.

• Yahoo is using Symfony to develop Yahoo! Bookmarks
• Delicious preview was rumored to have been built using Symfony.

Open source (MIT License)

Last but not least, Symfony is open source which mean the community (thousands of developers) is able to help to maintain it.

So there you go, few things I like about Symfony Framework

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