Before I explain the changes, let's talk about the current state.
Before this patch, the registerBundleDirs() method returned an ordered (for
resource overloading) list of namespace prefixes and the path to their
location. Here are some problems with this approach:
* The paths set by this method and the paths configured for the autoloader
can be disconnected (leading to unexpected behaviors);
* A bundle outside these paths worked, but unexpected behavior can occur;
* Choosing a bundle namespace was limited to the registered namespace
prefixes, and their number should stay low enough (for performance reasons)
-- moreover the current Bundle\ and Application\ top namespaces does not
respect the standard rules for namespaces (first segment should be the
vendor name);
* Developers must understand the concept of "namespace prefixes" to
understand the overloading mechanism, which is one more thing to learn,
which is Symfony specific;
* Each time you want to get a resource that can be overloaded (a template for
instance), Symfony would have tried all namespace prefixes one after the
other until if finds a matching file. But that can be computed in advance
to reduce the overhead.
Another topic which was not really well addressed is how you can reference a
file/resource from a bundle (and take into account the possibility of
overloading). For instance, in the routing, you can import a file from a
bundle like this:
<import resource="FrameworkBundle/Resources/config/internal.xml" />
Again, this works only because we have a limited number of possible namespace
prefixes.
This patch addresses these problems and some more.
First, the registerBundleDirs() method has been removed. It means that you are
now free to use any namespace for your bundles. No need to have specific
prefixes anymore. You are also free to store them anywhere, in as many
directories as you want. You just need to be sure that they are autoloaded
correctly.
The bundle "name" is now always the short name of the bundle class (like
FrameworkBundle or SensioCasBundle). As the best practice is to prefix the
bundle name with the vendor name, it's up to the vendor to ensure that each
bundle name is unique. I insist that a bundle name must be unique. This was
the opposite before as two bundles with the same name was how Symfony2 found
inheritance.
A new getParent() method has been added to BundleInterface. It returns the
bundle name that the bundle overrides (this is optional of course). That way,
there is no ordering problem anymore as the inheritance tree is explicitely
defined by the bundle themselves.
So, with this system, we can easily have an inheritance tree like the
following:
FooBundle < MyFooBundle < MyCustomFooBundle
MyCustomFooBundle returns MyFooBundle for the getParent() method, and
MyFooBundle returns FooBundle.
If two bundles override the same bundle, an exception is thrown.
Based on the bundle name, you can now reference any resource with this
notation:
@FooBundle/Resources/config/routing.xml
@FooBundle/Controller/FooController.php
This notation is the input of the Kernel::locateResource() method, which
returns the location of the file (and of course it takes into account
overloading).
So, in the routing, you can now use the following:
<import resource="@FrameworkBundle/Resources/config/internal.xml" />
The template loading mechanism also use this method under the hood.
As a bonus, all the code that converts from internal notations to file names
(controller names: ControllerNameParser, template names: TemplateNameParser,
resource paths, ...) is now contained in several well-defined classes. The
same goes for the code that look for templates (TemplateLocator), routing
files (FileLocator), ...
As a side note, it is really easy to also support multiple-inheritance for a
bundle (for instance if a bundle returns an array of bundle names it extends).
However, this is not implemented in this patch as I'm not sure we want to
support that.
How to upgrade:
* Each bundle must now implement two new mandatory methods: getPath() and
getNamespace(), and optionally the getParent() method if the bundle extends
another one. Here is a common implementation for these methods:
/**
* {@inheritdoc}
*/
public function getParent()
{
return 'MyFrameworkBundle';
}
/**
* {@inheritdoc}
*/
public function getNamespace()
{
return __NAMESPACE__;
}
/**
* {@inheritdoc}
*/
public function getPath()
{
return strtr(__DIR__, '\\', '/');
}
* The registerBundleDirs() can be removed from your Kernel class;
* If your code relies on getBundleDirs() or the kernel.bundle_dirs parameter,
it should be upgraded to use the new interface (see Doctrine commands for
many example of such a change);
* When referencing a bundle, you must now always use its name (no more \ or /
in bundle names) -- this transition was already done for most things
before, and now applies to the routing as well;
* Imports in routing files must be changed:
Before: <import resource="Sensio/CasBundle/Resources/config/internal.xml" />
After: <import resource="@SensioCasBundle/Resources/config/internal.xml" />
* removed the __call() method in Container: it means that now, there is only
one way to get a service: via the get() method;
* removed the $shared variable in the dumped Container classes (we now use
the $services variable from the parent class directly -- this is where we
have a performance improvement);
* optimized the PHP Dumper output.
Some explanations on how it works now:
* The Session is an optional dependency of the Request. If you create the
Request yourself (which is mandatory now in the front controller) and if
you don't inject a Session yourself (which is recommended if you want the
session to be configured via dependency injection), the Symfony2 Kernel
will associate the Session configured in the Container with the Request
automatically.
* When duplicating a request, the session is shared between the parent and
the child (that's because duplicated requests are sub-requests of the main
one most of the time.) Notice that when you use ::create(), the behavior is
the same as for the constructor; no session is attached to the Request.
* Symfony2 tries hard to not create a session cookie when it is not needed
but a Session object is always available (the cookie is only created when
"something" is stored in the session.)
* Symfony2 only starts a session when:
* A session already exists in the request ($_COOKIE[session_name()] is
defined -- this is done by RequestListener);
* There is something written in the session object (the cookie will be sent
to the Client).
* Notice that reading from the session does not start the session anymore (as
we don't need to start a new session to get the default values, and because
if a session exists, it has already been started by RequestListener.)
A Controller must now implements ControllerInterface.
The BaseController can be used as the base class for Controllers.
The Controller class adds some proxy methods and an array access to the Container.
