DX (developer experience) is defined by the tools, processes, and software that a developer uses when interacting with a product or system. In Symfony we're constantly improving DX and in this post we highlight some of the best Symfony 6.2 DX improvements.

Simpler Way to get Current Route in Templates

Jules Pietri
Contributed by Jules Pietri in #47535

The app global variable is a context object which provides quick access to some the most commonly accessed objects in templates (the User object, the Request object, the session, etc.)

In Symfony 6.2 we're improving this global object to also expose the current route name and parameters:

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<ul>
    {# Before #}
    <li class="{{ 'some_route' == app.request.attributes.get('_route') ? 'active' }}">...</li>

    {# After #}
    <li class="{{ 'some_route' == app.current_route ? 'active' }}">...</li>

    {# ... #}
</ul>

In addition to app.current_route you can also use app.current_route_parameters to get the parameters used to generate the URL of the route.

Better Guessing of PHP Config Typehints

Jérémy Derussé
Contributed by Jérémy Derussé in #44166

In Symfony 5.3 we introduced config builders to allow you configure Symfony applications in PHP using a fluent interface instead of plain arrays. This works thanks to some PHP classes that Symfony builds automatically based on the configuration definition.

In Symfony 6.2 we're improving the generation of those PHP classes to guess some types with more precision. In practice, this will improve the autocomplete of your IDE and the results of your static analysis tools:

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// Real example of an automatically generated PHP config builder method
// Before:
public function someMethod(mixed $value): static
{
    // ...
}

// After:
public function someMethod(ParamConfigurator|string|array $value): static
{
    // ...
}

Hidding Sensitive Information

Jérôme Tamarelle
Contributed by Jérôme Tamarelle in #46183

PHP 8.2 added a #[SensitiveParameter] attribute as a way to hide sensitive information (e.g. passwords) in back traces. In Symfony 6.2 we've added that attribute to tens of PHP classes to hide sensitive information like security tokens, passwords, authentication secrets, etc.

When updating to Symfony 6.2, you'll no longer see those kind of values in your logs, back traces, etc.

Simpler Form Rendering

Nicolas Grekas
Contributed by Nicolas Grekas in #46854

When passing a Symfony form from a controller to a Twig template, you need to call createView() method on the form:

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return $this->render('some/template.html.twig', [
    'form' => $form->createView(),
]);

In Symfony 5.3 we introduced a form handler helper where you could use a $this->renderForm() method instead and pass the $form object directly. In Symfony 6.2 we're deprecating that method and making the existing render() method smarter, so you can pass $form objects directly and Symfony will call the createView() method on them automatically:

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return $this->render('some/template.html.twig', [
    // no need to call "createView()" explicitly
    'form' => $form,
]);
Published in #Living on the edge