How to Dump Workflows

Warning: You are browsing the documentation for Symfony 5.x, which is no longer maintained.

Read the updated version of this page for Symfony 7.3 (the current stable version).

To help you debug your workflows, you can generate a visual representation of them as SVG or PNG images. First, install any of these free and open source applications needed to generate the images:

  • Graphviz, provides the dot command;
  • Mermaid CLI, provides the mmdc command;
  • PlantUML, provides the plantuml.jar file (which requires Java).

5.3

The mermaid dump format was introduced in Symfony 5.3.

If you are defining the workflow inside a Symfony application, run this command to dump it as an image:

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# using Graphviz's 'dot' and SVG images
$ php bin/console workflow:dump workflow-name | dot -Tsvg -o graph.svg

# using Graphviz's 'dot' and PNG images
$ php bin/console workflow:dump workflow-name | dot -Tpng -o graph.png

# using PlantUML's 'plantuml.jar'
$ php bin/console workflow:dump workflow_name --dump-format=puml | java -jar plantuml.jar -p  > graph.png

# highlight 'place1' and 'place2' in the dumped workflow
$ php bin/console workflow:dump workflow-name place1 place2 | dot -Tsvg -o graph.svg

# using Mermaid.js CLI
$ php bin/console workflow:dump workflow_name --dump-format=mermaid | mmdc -o graph.svg

The DOT image will look like this:

A state diagram of the Symfony workflow created by DOT.

The Mermaid image will look like this:

A state diagram of the Symfony workflow created by Mermaid.

The PlantUML image will look like this:

A state diagram of the Symfony workflow created by PlantUML.

If you are creating workflows outside of a Symfony application, use the GraphvizDumper or StateMachineGraphvizDumper class to create the DOT files and PlantUmlDumper to create the PlantUML files:

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// Add this code to a PHP script; for example: dump-graph.php
$dumper = new GraphvizDumper();
echo $dumper->dump($definition);

# if you prefer PlantUML, use this code:
# $dumper = new PlantUmlDumper();
# echo $dumper->dump($definition);
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# replace 'dump-graph.php' by the name of your PHP script
$ php dump-graph.php | dot -Tsvg -o graph.svg
$ php dump-graph.php | java -jar plantuml.jar -p  > graph.png

Styling

You can use metadata with the following keys to style the workflow:

  • for places:

    • bg_color: a color;
    • description: a string that describes the state.

  • for transitions:

    • label: a string that replaces the name of the transition;
    • color: a color;
    • arrow_color: a color.

Strings can include \n characters to display the contents in multiple lines. Colors can be defined as:

  • a color name from PlantUML's color list;
  • an hexadecimal color (both #AABBCC and #ABC formats are supported).

Note

The Mermaid dumper does not support coloring the arrow heads with arrow_color as there is no support in Mermaid for doing so.

Below is the configuration for the pull request state machine with styling added.

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# config/packages/workflow.yaml
framework:
    workflows:
        pull_request:
            type: 'state_machine'
            marking_store:
                type: 'method'
                property: 'currentPlace'
            supports:
                - App\Entity\PullRequest
            initial_marking: start
            places:
                start: ~
                coding: ~
                test: ~
                review:
                    metadata:
                        description: Human review
                merged: ~
                closed:
                    metadata:
                        bg_color: DeepSkyBlue
            transitions:
                submit:
                    from: start
                    to: test
                update:
                    from: [coding, test, review]
                    to: test
                    metadata:
                        arrow_color: Turquoise
                wait_for_review:
                    from: test
                    to: review
                    metadata:
                        color: Orange
                request_change:
                    from: review
                    to: coding
                accept:
                    from: review
                    to: merged
                    metadata:
                        label: Accept PR
                reject:
                    from: review
                    to: closed
                reopen:
                    from: closed
                    to: review

The PlantUML image will look like this:

A state diagram created by PlantUML with custom transition colors and descriptions.
This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.
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