New in symfony 1.2: Small things matter (4)

In this new installment of "Small things matter", I will yet again talk about things that makes symfony easier for newcomers and more flexible for advanced users.

sfViewCacheManager

The symfony cache layer has always been quite configurable but lacked some flexibility.

As of symfony 1.2, the view cache manager class can be configured in factories.yml and default to sfViewCacheManager:

view_cache_manager:
  class: sfViewCacheManager
 

Forms

The new form framework introduced in symfony 1.1 was a bit rough around the edges, and each week, we try to make it easier to use for the web designer and the developer.

This time, thanks to François's work on the documentation, we have added a way to declare widget default values and labels directly in the widget declaration:

class SomeForm extends sfForm
{
  public function configure()
  {
    $this->setWidgets(array(
      'first_name' => new sfWidgetFormInput(array(
        'label' => 'Your first name',
        'default' => 'Enter your first name here'
      ));
    ));
 
    // ...
  }
}
 

Propel

I have already talked about the propel:insert-sql task in a previous post, but this task has been yet again enhanced, and not in a small way.

Before symfony 1.2, the propel:insert-sql task was the only task to read its database configuration information from propel.ini. It was a pain in the ass for several reasons:

• You have to remember to update the propel.ini file each time you modify databases.yml
• The propel.ini file has no way to declare different configurations for different connections or environments.
• As a result, most of the time, you are obliged to update propel.ini manually each you want to use propel:insert-sql; or perhaps pragmatically you insert the SQL statements from data/sql by hand like I do.

That's over! As of symfony 1.2, the propel:insert-sql task reads its information from databases.yml. So, if you use several different connections in your model, the task will take those into account automatically.

You can even use the --connection option if you want to only load SQL statements for a given connection:

$ php symfony propel:insert-sql --connection=propel

Or use the --env and/or the --application options to select a specific configuration to use:

$ php symfony propel:insert-sql --env=prod --application=frontend

You can of course mix and match all those options.

symfony 1.2 is coming along nicely and I really hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.