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14.

Flex Extras

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Now that we're on Symfony 4 with Flex, I have three cool things to show you.

Repositories as a Service

Start by opening GenusController: find listAction. Ah yes: this is a very classic setup: get the entity manager, get the repository, then call a method on it.

One of the annoying things is that - unless you add a bunch of extra config - repositories are not services and can not be autowired. Boo!

Well... that's not true anymore! Want your repository to be a service? Just make two changes. First, extend a new base class: ServiceEntityRepository.

52 lines | src/Repository/GenusRepository.php
// ... lines 1 - 5
use Doctrine\Bundle\DoctrineBundle\Repository\ServiceEntityRepository;
// ... lines 7 - 10
class GenusRepository extends ServiceEntityRepository
{
// ... lines 13 - 50
}

And second, override the __construct() function. But remove the $entityClass argument.

Tip

Make sure the type-hint for the first argument is RegistryInterface not ManagerRegistry.

In the parent call, use Genus::class.

52 lines | src/Repository/GenusRepository.php
// ... lines 1 - 12
public function __construct(ManagerRegistry $registry)
{
parent::__construct($registry, Genus::class);
}
// ... lines 17 - 52

That might look weird at first... but with those two small changes, your repository is already being auto-registered as a service! Yep, back in listAction, add a new argument: GenusRepository $genusRepository. Use that below instead of fetching the EntityManager.

143 lines | src/Controller/GenusController.php
// ... lines 1 - 18
class GenusController extends Controller
{
// ... lines 21 - 66
public function listAction(GenusRepository $genusRepository)
{
$genuses = $genusRepository
->findAllPublishedOrderedByRecentlyActive();
// ... lines 71 - 74
}
// ... lines 76 - 141
}

And that's it! Go to that page in your browser: /genus. Beautiful! Make that same change to your other repository classes when you want to.

Fixtures as Services

Ok, cool thing #2: our fixtures are broken. Well... that's not the cool part. They're broken because we removed Alice, so everything explodes:

But, there's even more going on. Find your composer.json file and make sure the version constraint is ^3.0.

81 lines | composer.json
{
// ... lines 2 - 42
"require-dev": {
// ... lines 44 - 45
"doctrine/doctrine-fixtures-bundle": "^3.0"
},
// ... lines 48 - 79
}

Then, run:

composer update doctrine/doctrine-fixtures-bundle

Version 3 of this bundle is all new... but not in a "broke everything" kind of way. Before, fixture classes were loaded because they lived in an exact directory: usually DataFixtures\ORM in your bundle. And if you needed to access services, you extended ContainerAwareFixture and fetched them directly from the container.

Well, no more! In the new version, your fixtures are services, and so they act like everything else. You can even put them anywhere.

When Composer finishes, download one more package:

composer require fzaninotto/faker

Tip

Even better would be composer require fzaninotto/faker --dev!

This isn't needed by DoctrineFixturesBundle, but we are going to use it. In fact, if you downloaded the course code, you should have a tutorial/ directory with an AllFixtures.php file inside. Copy that and put it directly into DataFixtures.

142 lines | src/DataFixtures/AllFixtures.php
// ... lines 1 - 15
class AllFixtures extends Fixture
{
// ... lines 18 - 22
public function load(ObjectManager $manager)
{
$this->faker = Factory::create();
$this->addSubFamily($manager);
$this->addGenus($manager);
$this->addGenusNote($manager);
$this->addUser($manager);
$this->addGenusScientist($manager);
$manager->flush();
}
// ... lines 34 - 140
}

Then, delete the old ORM directory. This is our new fixture class: all we need to do is extend Fixture from the bundle, and the command instantly recognizes it. If you need services, just add a constructor and use autowiring!

Let's go check on Faker. Ah, it's done! Inside the class, Faker allows me to generate really nice, random values. Does it work? Reload the fixtures:

./bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load

It sees our class immediately and... it works! Fixtures are services... and they work great.

MakerBundle

Ready for one last cool thing? Run:

composer require maker --dev

This installs the MakerBundle: Symfony's new code generator. Code generation is of course optional. But with this bundle, you'll be able to develop new features faster than ever. Need a console command, an event subscriber or a Twig extension? Yep, there's a command for that.

What's everything it can do? Run:

./bin/console list make

Right now, it has about 10 commands - but there are a lot more planned: this bundle is only about 1 month old!

Let's try one of these commands!

./bin/console make:voter

Call it RandomAccessVoter: we'll create a voter that randomly gives us access. Fun! Open the new class in src/Security/Voter. This comes pre-generated with real-world example code. In supports(), return $attribute === 'RANDOM_ACCESS'. Our voter will vote when someone calls isGranted() with RANDOM_ACCESS.

21 lines | src/Security/Voter/RandomAccessVoter.php
// ... lines 1 - 8
class RandomAccessVoter extends Voter
{
protected function supports($attribute, $subject)
{
return $attribute === 'RANDOM_ACCESS';
}
// ... lines 15 - 19
}

Then, for voteOnAttribute(), return random_int(0, 10) > 5.

21 lines | src/Security/Voter/RandomAccessVoter.php
// ... lines 1 - 15
protected function voteOnAttribute($attribute, $subject, TokenInterface $token)
{
return random_int(0, 10) > 5;
}
// ... lines 20 - 21

Now we need to go and update some configuration, right? No! This class is already being used! Open GenusController and... above newAction(), add @IsGranted("RANDOM_ACCESS").

145 lines | src/Controller/GenusController.php
// ... lines 1 - 19
class GenusController extends Controller
{
/**
// ... line 23
* @IsGranted("RANDOM_ACCESS")
*/
public function newAction()
// ... lines 27 - 143
}

Done! Try it: go to /genus/new. Ha! It sent us to the login page - that proves its working. Login with iliketurtles and... access granted! Refresh - granted! Refresh - denied!

All that by running 1 command and changing about 3 lines. Welcome to Symfony 4.

Let's go Symfony 4!

Hey, we're done! Upgrading to the Flex structure is work, but I hope you're as happy as I am about the result! To go further with Flex and Symfony 4, check out our Symfony Track: we're going to start a project with Flex and really do things right.

All right guys. Seeya next time!