In the last part of this series of articles we introduced the ability to edit multiple child models in the edit screen of the parent model. In this part we will take it a step further by adding I18N behavior to the child models. To make things a little bit clear before we start coding please take a look at the result we want to achieve below.

Before starting I strongly recommend reading part one, and two if you haven’t done so already. OK lets get started, we will be modifying the following files:

• CategoryForm.class.php which represents the parent model
• SubcategoryI18nForm.class.php which represents the form of the i18n model of the child model
• Subcategory.class.php which represents the child model

Files need for this article

• sfWidgetFormInputDelete

Schema

  category:
      _attributes: { phpName: Category }
      id: { type: INTEGER, size: '11', primaryKey: true, autoIncrement: true, required: true }
      name: { type: VARCHAR, size: '255', required: true }
      created_at: { type: TIMESTAMP, required: false }
      updated_at: { type: TIMESTAMP, required: false }
  subcategory:
      _attributes: { phpName: Subcategory, isI18N: true, i18nTable: subcategory_i18n }
      id:          { type: integer, required: true, primaryKey: true, autoincrement: true }
      category_id: { type: INTEGER, size: '11', required: true, foreignTable: category, foreignReference: id, onDelete: CASCADE}
      created_at: { type: TIMESTAMP, required: false }
      updated_at: { type: TIMESTAMP, required: false }

  subcategory_i18n:
    _attributes: { phpName: SubcategoryI18n }
    id:          { type: integer, required: true, primaryKey: true, foreignTable: subcategory, foreignReference: id, onDelete: CASCADE }
    culture:     { isCulture: true, type: varchar, size: 7, required: true, primaryKey: true }
    name:        { type: varchar, size: 50 }

SubcategoryI18nForm

public function configure() {
    unset($this['culture'], $this['id']);
}

Subcategory

public function getI18nObject($culture = 'en') {

    $this->setCulture($culture);

    $i18ns = $this->getSubcategoryI18ns();

    if (isset($i18ns[0])) {

        return $i18ns[0];

    }

    return null;

}

CategoryForm

public function configure() {

// remove timestamps
unset($this['created_at'], $this['updated_at']);

	// embed forms only when editing
	if (!$this->isNew()) {

		$user_culture = sfContext::getInstance()->getUser()->getCulture();

		// embed all subcategory forms
		foreach ($this->getObject()->getSubcategorys() as $subcategory) {

			// get the subcategory_i18n model object relative to the current user culture
			$subcategory_i18n_object = $subcategory->getI18nObject($user_culture);

			// create a new subcategory_i18n form for the current subcategory model object
			$subcategory_i18n_form = new SubcategoryI18nForm($subcategory->getI18nObject('en'));

			// get widget schema of subcategory_i18n form
			$subcategory_i18n_form_widget_schema = $subcategory_i18n_form->getWidgetSchema();

			// set the input delete widget
			$subcategory_i18n_form_widget_schema['name'] = new sfWidgetFormInputDelete(array(
			'url' => 'category/deleteSubcategory',      // required
			'model_id' => $subcategory->getId(),        // required
			'confirm' => 'Sure???',                     // optional
			));

			// create a new subcategory form for the current subcategory model object
			$subcategory_form = new SubcategoryForm($subcategory);

			// embed the i18n form
			$subcategory_form->embedForm('subcategory_i18n'.$subcategory_i18n_object->getId(), $subcategory_i18n_form);

			// subcategory form widget schema
			$subcategory_form_widget_schema = $subcategory_form->getWidgetSchema();

			// disable label
			$subcategory_form_widget_schema['subcategory_i18n'.$subcategory_i18n_object->getId()]->setLabel(false);

			// embed the subcategory form in the main category form
			$this->embedForm('subcategory'.$subcategory->getId(), $subcategory_form);

			// set a custom label for the embedded form
			$this->widgetSchema['subcategory'.$subcategory->getId()]->setLabel('Subcategory: '.$subcategory->getName());

		}

		// create a new subcategory form for a new subcategory model object
		$subcategory_form = new SubcategoryForm();

		// create a new subcategory form for a new subcategory_i18n model object
		$subcategory_i18n_form = new SubcategoryI18nForm();

		// embed the subcategory_i18n form in the parent subcategory form
		$subcategory_form->embedForm('subcategory_i18n', $subcategory_i18n_form);

		// subcategory form widget schema
		$subcategory_form_widget_schema = $subcategory_form->getWidgetSchema();

		// disable label
		$subcategory_form_widget_schema['subcategory_i18n']->setLabel(false);

		// embed the subcategory form in the main category form
		$this->embedForm('subcategory', $subcategory_form);

		// set a custom label for the embedded form
		$this->widgetSchema['subcategory']->setLabel('New Subcategory');

	}
}
public function bind(array $taintedValues = null, array $taintedFiles = null) {

		if(!$this->isNew()) {

			$user_culture = sfContext::getInstance()->getUser()->getCulture();

			// remove the embedded new form if the name field was not provided
			if (is_null($taintedValues['subcategory']['subcategory_i18n']['name']) || strlen($taintedValues['subcategory']['subcategory_i18n']['name']) === 0 ) {

				unset($this->embeddedForms['subcategory'], $taintedValues['subcategory']);

				// pass the new form validations
				$this->validatorSchema['subcategory'] = new sfValidatorPass();

			} else {

				// set the category of the new subcategory form object
				$this->embeddedForms['subcategory']->getObject()->setCategory($this->getObject());

				// get subcategory embedded forms
				$subcategory_embedded_forms = $this->embeddedForms['subcategory']->getEmbeddedForms();

				// set subcategory parent of the subcategory_i18n model object
				$subcategory_embedded_forms['subcategory_i18n']->getObject()->setSubcategory($this->embeddedForms['subcategory']->getObject());

				// set the culture of the subcategory_i18n model object
				$subcategory_embedded_forms['subcategory_i18n']->getObject()->setCulture($user_culture);
			}

		}

		// call parent bind method
		parent::bind($taintedValues, $taintedFiles);

	}

As you can see this is a lot of code to copy and paste every time you need the functionality, that’s why I’m currently working on extending the Admin Generator in order to have this functionality available when you generate an admin module by default.

In part one of this article we saw how to embed forms in a one-to-one relationship. But I often run into a situation where I want to edit a parent model, it’s children models, and maybe add a new child model while I’m at it, greedy I know, but isn’t that the reason why we use the admin generator. Anyway in this article we will examine the one-to-many relationship.

Before we get started here’s a sneak peak of the CategoryForm after the modifications to be done.

Files need for this article

• sfWidgetFormInputDelete

Ok, lets get started, consider the following schema:

category:
    _attributes: { phpName: Category }
    id: { type: INTEGER, size: '11', primaryKey: true, autoIncrement: true, required: true }
    name: { type: VARCHAR, size: '255', required: true }
    created_at: { type: TIMESTAMP, required: false }
    updated_at: { type: TIMESTAMP, required: false }
subcategory:
    _attributes: { phpName: Subcategory }
    id: { type: INTEGER, size: '11', primaryKey: true, autoIncrement: true, required: true }
    name: { type: VARCHAR, size: '255', required: true }
    category_id: { type: INTEGER, size: '11', required: true, foreignTable: category, foreignReference: id, onDelete: CASCADE, onUpdate: RESTRICT }
    created_at: { type: TIMESTAMP, required: false }
    updated_at: { type: TIMESTAMP, required: false }

Steps needed to achieve the required result

1. Modify the CategoryForm to include embedded forms for all available subcategories of the current category.
2. Modify the widget of the name field in the subcategory
3. Modify the CategoryForm to add a new blank subcategory form
4. Override the bind method of the sfForm class to skip saving and validating the new subcategory form if the name field was left blank
5. Remove fields from SubcategoryForm

Embedded forms for all available subcategories of the current category [step 1, 2, and 3]

// lib/forms/CategoryForm.class.php
public function configure() {

  // remove timestamps
  unset($this['created_at'], $this['updated_at']);

  // embed forms only when editing
  if (!$this->isNew()) {

    // embed all subcategory forms
    foreach ($this->getObject()->getSubcategorys() as $subcategory) {

    // create a new subcategory form for the current subcategory model object
    $subcategory_form = new SubcategoryForm($subcategory);

    // embed the subcategory form in the main category form
    $this->embedForm('subcategory'.$subcategory->getId(), $subcategory_form);

    // set a custom label for the embedded form
    $this->widgetSchema['subcategory'.$subcategory->getId()]->setLabel('Subcategory: '.$subcategory->getName());

    // change the name widget to sfWidgetFormInputDelete
    $this->widgetSchema['subcategory'.$subcategory->getId()]['name'] = new sfWidgetFormInputDelete(array(
    'url' => 'category/deleteSubcategory',      // required
    'model_id' => $subcategory->getId(),        // required
    'confirm' => 'Sure???',                     // optional
    ));

  }

  // create a new subcategory form for a new subcategory model object
  $subcategory_form = new SubcategoryForm();

  // embed the subcategory form in the main category form
  $this->embedForm('subcategory', $subcategory_form);

  // set a custom label for the embedded form
  $this->widgetSchema['subcategory']->setLabel('New Subcategory');

  }
}

Override the bind method

public function bind(array $taintedValues = null, array $taintedFiles = null) {

	// remove the embedded new form if the name field was not provided
	if (is_null($taintedValues['subcategory']['name']) || strlen($taintedValues['subcategory']['name']) === 0 ) {

		unset($this->embeddedForms['subcategory'], $taintedValues['subcategory']);

		// pass the new form validations
		$this->validatorSchema['subcategory'] = new sfValidatorPass();

	} else {

		// set the category of the new subcategory form object
		$this->embeddedForms['subcategory']->getObject()->
                setCategory($this->getObject());

	}

	// call parent bind method
	parent::bind($taintedValues, $taintedFiles);

}

Remove fields from SubcategoryForm

public function configure(){
  unset($this['created_at'], $this['updated_at'], $this['category_id']);
}

Now we create the action deleteSubcategory in category module

// apps/backend/modules/category/actions/actions.class.php
public function executeDeleteSubcategory(sfWebRequest $request) {
  $sub_category = SubcategoryPeer::retrieveByPk($request->getParameter('id'));
  $sub_category->delete();
  $this->redirect('@category_edit?id='.$sub_category->getCategory()->getId());
}

That’s it, I hop that you enjoyed this article.

Most of the modules we work on in symfony are secured with the popular sfGuardPlugin, but by default you can’t test a secured module each time you will try to access an action from your functional testing file will result in failure of the test. To make my point a little bit clear consider that we have a module called foobar in an application called backend. Of course as you know that when you create the module, automatically a file called foobarActionsTest.php is created in test/functional/backend.

So we edit the foobarActionsTest.php contents to match the following snippet:

// test/functional/backend/foobarActionsTest.php
include(dirname(__FILE__).'/../../bootstrap/functional.php');

$browser = new sfTestFunctional(new sfBrowser());
$browser->get('foobar/index')->isStatusCode(200);

Now we run the following command to test the module:

php symfony test:functional backend foobarActions

Since the backend application is secured, the above test will result in the following error:

The 401 response code we got means Unauthorized access, since the user isn’t logged, so this is what we need to make the test successful, we need the user to login first before we try to access the foobar/index action.

The solutions is rather simple, first we create a file called sf_guard.php:

// test/functional/sf_guard.php
function signin($username, $password, $browser) {
  $browser = new sfTestFunctional(new sfBrowser());
  return $browser->
    info(sprintf('Signin user using username "%s" and password "%s"', $username, $password))->
    post('/sfGuardAuth/signin', array('signin' => array('username' => $username, 'password' => $password,)))->
    isRedirected()
  ;
}

Next we modify the foobarActionsTest.php:

include(dirname(__FILE__).'/../sf_guard.php');
include(dirname(__FILE__).'/../../bootstrap/functional.php');

$username = 'admin';
$password = 'admin';
$browser = new sfTestFunctional(new sfBrowser());
signin($username, $password, $browser)->get('/foobar/index')->isStatusCode(200);

Now we run the test again, and it passes gracefully

Now as Niko mentioned in his comment, her is another better and simpler way:
First we create a class sfGuardTestFunctional in lib folder

class sfGuardTestFunctional extends sfTestFunctional {

	public function signin($username, $password) {
		return $this->
			info(sprintf('Signin user using username "%s" and password "%s"', $username, $password))->
			post('/sfGuardAuth/signin', array('signin' => array('username' => $username, 'password' => $password,)))->
			isRedirected()
		;
	}
}

Next we modify the foobarActionsTest.php

include(dirname(__FILE__).'/../../bootstrap/functional.php');

$username = 'admin';
$password = 'admin';

$browser = new sfGuardTestFunctional(new sfBrowser());
$browser->
	get('/foobar/index')->
	isStatusCode(401)->
	signin($username, $password)->
	get('/foobar/index')->
	isStatusCode(200)
;

That way it’s much simpler and more efficient, thanks again Niko

The sfJqueryWidgetsPlugin is a symfony plugin that adds two jquery widgets to the list of available widgets bundled in the framework.

The two widgets are:

• Drop down list that fires an Ajax request upon DOM event.
• Sortable list that fires an Ajax request upon change.

Installation

1. Install the Plugin

   <code>$ symfony plugin:install sfJqueryWidgetsPlugin
   

2. Clear Your Cache

   <code>$ symfony cc
   

3. Publish Plugins Assets

   <code>$ symfony plugin:publish-assets
   

Usage

sfWidgetFormPropelSelectAjax

Consider that you want in the admin generator for example to fetch subcategories of a certain category using ajax. You already have in the form the drop down list that shows a list of categories, what is missing is the ajax request fired upon change of the drop down list. Normally the ajax request is sent to an action that fetches the subcategories of the selected category and maybe displays them also in a drop down list.

Usage

We need to change the type of widget used to display the category drop down list from sfWidgetFormPropelSelect to sfWidgetFormPropelSelectAjax

  $this->widgetSchema['category'] = new sfWidgetFormPropelSelectAjax(array(
    'model' => 'Category',
    'method' => 'getName',
    'url' => 'test/ajax'
  ));

As you can see in the above snippet we simply specify the model to be used for fetching the records to be displayed in the drop down list, next we specify the method used to display the text in the drop down list, and lastly we specify the url to which the
ajax request is sent to.

In the action test/ajax you can fetch the id of the selected category from the request parameter id

sfWidgetFormPropelJQuerySortable

This is a really cool and effective widget, it allows sorting of a list of models and it’s so easy to use.

Usage

  $this->widgetSchema['categories'] = new sfWidgetFormPropelJQuerySortable(array(
    'model' => 'Category',
    'url' => 'section/new',
  ));

In the action section/new you can fetch the sorted list using the request parameter id

Symfony 1.2 added a lot of new and exciting new features to an already great and powerful PHP framework. One of those features is the ability to embed a form into another. So what excatly does this mean?

First consider the model shown in the diagram below:

As shown in the above figure, there is a one-to-one relationship between the company and the contact model.

Here is the schema.yml:

propel:
  _attributes:
    package: lib.model
    defaultIdMethod: native
  company:
    _attributes: { phpName: Company }
    id: { type: INTEGER, size: '11', primaryKey: true, autoIncrement: true, required: true }
    name: { type: VARCHAR, size: '255', required: true }
    contact_id: { type: INTEGER, size: '11', required: false, foreignTable: contact, foreignReference: id, onDelete: SET NULL, onUpdate: RESTRICT }
    _indexes: { company_FI_1: [contact_id] }
  contact:
    _attributes: { phpName: Contact }
    id: { type: INTEGER, size: '11', primaryKey: true, autoIncrement: true, required: true }
    first_name: { type: VARCHAR, size: '255', required: true }
    last_name: { type: VARCHAR, size: '255', required: true }
    company_id: { type: INTEGER, size: '11', required: false, foreignTable: company, foreignReference: id, onDelete: SET NULL, onUpdate: RESTRICT }
    _indexes: { contact_FI_1: [company_id] }

Note that both foriegn keys are not required, that is a must for us to be able to embed the Contact form in the Company form.

Now that we have the schema ready, let us build the sql schema, models, forms, filters, and create the tables.

$ php symfony propel:build-sql
$ php symfony propel:build-model
$ php symfony propel:build-forms
$ php symfony propel:build-filters
$ php symfony propel:insert-sql --env=dev

Now let us generate a module using symfony’s admin generator and see how the generator will handle this relationship.

$ php symfony propel:generate-admin backend Company

By browsing to the category module we just created above we can see the below figure:

Now if we click on the “New” link we get the following screen:

Notice that the “contact_id” foreign column was interpreted by the admin generator as a drop down list. Of course that is not what we had in mind, we want to be able to add a new “Company” along with it’s “Contact”. Thanks to symfony 1.2 ability to embed forms, this can be done very easily.

First open “CompanyForm.class.php” file and edit the configure method to match the following:

public function configure() {

	// get Contact model object
	$contact = $this->getObject()->getContact();

	// contact object is null
	if (is_null($contact)) {

		// create a new Contact object
		$contact = new Contact();

		// set the copmany of the newly created object to the current company
		$contact->setCompany($this->getObject());

		// set the contact of the current company
		$this->getObject()->setContact($contact);

	}

	// create a new contact form
	$contact_form = new ContactForm($contact);

	// embed the contact form in the current company form
	$this->embedForm('contact', $contact_form);

	// remove the contact_id from the form
	unset($this['contact_id']);

}

Next, open the ContactForm.class.php and edit as follows:

public function configure() {

	unset($this['company_id']);

}

Now modify the Company.php model class to delete the contact while delete the company

public function delete(PropelPDO $con = null) {
	$this->getContact()->delete($con);
	parent::delete($con);
}

And last but not least, edit the generator.yml to match the following(this step is optional):

generator:
  class: sfPropelGenerator
  param:
    model_class:           Company
    theme:                 admin
    non_verbose_templates: true
    with_show:             false
    singular:              ~
    plural:                ~
    route_prefix:          company
    with_propel_route:     1

    config:
      actions: ~
      fields:
          contact_id: { label: Company Contact }
      list:
          display: [=name, contact]
      filter:  ~
      form:    ~
      edit:    ~
      new:     ~

Now go to the add new “Company” screen and you should see the following:

Try adding, editing, and deleting some records now to make sure it’s working.

The purpose of this article is to simplify the installation process of symfony. Symfony installation can be a very tricky process and at some point might get very annoying that you might consider using another framework with an easy installation steps just like CakePHP. Symfony can be installed or used into two different ways:

• PEAR installation(suitable for hosting that provides SSH access)
• Sandbox installation(suitable for shared hosting with no SSH access, note: the name Sandbox here is not related to Sandbox Web Solutions)

But before describing the steps of each installation type lets first understand the difference between the two and which type is most suitable for your hosting plan or account after all, you will eventually publish your projects online. PEAR or PHP Extension and Application Repository is simply an online repository of PHP libraries, you can find Symfony and a lot more of PHP very good and time saving libraries on PEAR. But before using libraries from PEAR repository you need first to install PEAR and then download PEAR packages or libraries. The idea is simple you download Symfony as a PEAR package or library to your own PEAR installation(wither its local or online) and use the same library for multiple concurrent projects at the same time, this decreases your project overall size since you don’t include the actual Symfony libraries in the project which can increase uploading time as you’ll see in the Sandbox installation.

Sandbox installation on the other hand include the Symfony library in every project you use, so for example consider that you’re going to start 2 projects, and the Symfony library is simply a folder, then you’ll have to copy the Symfony folder to each project’s folder in order to use it. Some might think that Sandbox installation is a very bad idea, but i think that both installation are good enough if they are used wisely. So now that you have enough information to know the difference between the two installations (note: both installations will have almost all symfony features) and you probably have decided by now which one is more suitable for you(if you’re unsure if your hosting supports SSH access, then start with the Sandbox installation) then lets start the installation steps.

PEAR Installation

Mac OS X 10.5.2

This is by far the simplest form of installing Symfony as a PEAR package so lets the fun begins.
The process is divided into 3 steps:

1. Installing PEAR
2. Enabling PHP module in Apache 2 HTTP Server which is pre installed along with PHP in your Mac
3. Installing Symfony 1.0.18

Installing PEAR

Open the terminal and follow the following steps(thanks to this source)

cd ~/
mkdir PEAR
cd PEAR

curl http://pear.php.net/go-pear > go-pear.php
sudo php -q go-pear.php

Press enter to select all the default choices and go ahead to the next step

sudo cp /etc/php.ini.default /etc/php.ini

If you’re asked for your account’s password enter it then continue to the next step.

mate /etc/php.ini

Now search for the following “; UNIX: “/path1:/path2″, it should be around line 468. Below this line you should find something similar to the following:

;include_path = ".:/php/includes"

modify the line above to match the following (note keep any paths you’ve added)

include_path = ".:/php/includes:/Users/YOUR_HOME_FOLDER_NAME/PEAR/PEAR"

Enabling PHP Module

Open your terminal

mate /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Search for “php5_module” and remove the “#” from the beginning of the line if it’s available. Now restart the apache web server using the following command (note: enter your account’s password when prompted)

sudo apachectl restart

Installing Symfony

Now comes the easy part, close any terminal window opened and then open a new terminal window and type the following (note: enter your account’s password when prompted)

sudo pear channel.discover pear.symfony-project.com
sudo pear install symfony/symfony-1.0.18

After PEAR finished installing symfony type the following to make sure everything is OK

symfony --version

You should now get the following output

symfony version 1.0.18

Pretty easy, you’ve now finished installing Symfony using PEAR on Mac OS X 10.5.2