What is the best way for reusable values throughout the application in Symfony 3? - model-view-controller

Question

I want to have a file or list that I can update easily with values that might change throughout my application.
I don't really want to hard code text values into the templates. I prefer to have all of these values in one place and labelled correctly.
Examples of values that might get updated are:
Page title
Logo text
Brand or company name
I have thought about two options:
Add them to the twig config in config.yml. This is a bit messy and doesn't seem organised if I decide to put a lot of values there.
Make a database table for these and include the entity in each controller where I need to use the values. This might be creating too much work.
Are there any other options or are one of these more suitable?
Thank you.

Answer 1

You need to create a twig function and use it to return the value you want. For example:
namespace AppBundle\Twig;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerAwareInterface;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerAwareTrait;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerInterface;
class TwigExtension extends \Twig_Extension implements ContainerAwareInterface
{
use ContainerAwareTrait;
/**
* #var ContainerInterface
*/
protected $container;
public function getFunctions()
{
return array(
new \Twig_SimpleFunction('parameter', function($name)
{
try {
return $this->container->getParameter($name);
} catch(\Exception $exception) {
return "";
}
})
);
}
/**
* Returns the name of the extension.
*
* #return string The extension name
*/
public function getName()
{
return 'app.twig.extension';
}
}
This will create a function called parameter and once you call it in twig {{ parameter('my.parameter') }} it will return the parameter. You need to load it as a service, which you can do by adding the following to your services.yml file:
app.twig.extension:
class: AppBundle\Twig\TwigExtension
calls:
- [setContainer, ["#service_container"]]
tags:
- { name: twig.extension }
From personal experience people usually want to be able to change some of the parameters. This is why I usually prefer to create a Setting or Parameter entity which would look something like this:
/**
* Setting
*
* #ORM\Table(name="my_parameters")
* #ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\ParameterRepository")
*/
class Parameter
{
/**
* #var integer
*
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\Column(name="parameter_id", type="integer")
* #ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
*/
private $id;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="name", type="string", length=255)
*/
private $name;
/**
* #var string
*
* #ORM\Column(name="value", type="text", nullable=true)
*/
private $value;
/**
* #param string|null $name
* #param string|null $value
*/
public function __construct($name = null, $value = null)
{
$this->setName($name);
$this->setValue($value);
}
/**
* Get id
*
* #return integer
*/
public function getId()
{
return $this->id;
}
/**
* Set name
*
* #param string $name
*
* #return Parameter
*/
public function setName($name)
{
$this->name = $name;
return $this;
}
/**
* Get name
*
* #return string
*/
public function getName()
{
return $this->name;
}
/**
* Set value
*
* #param string $value
*
* #return Parameter
*/
public function setValue($value = null)
{
$this->value = serialize($value);
return $this;
}
/**
* Get value
*
* #return string
*/
public function getValue()
{
$data = #unserialize($this->value);
return $this->value === 'b:0;' || $data !== false ? $this->value = $data : null;
}
}
Then I would add a CompilerPass which will help get all of the parameters from the database and cache them so that your app doesn't make unnecessary sql queries to the database. That might look something similar to the following class:
// AppBundle/DependencyInjection/Compiler/ParamsCompilerPass.php
namespace AppBundle\DependencyInjection\Compiler;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Compiler\CompilerPassInterface;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerBuilder;
class ParamsCompilerPass implements CompilerPassInterface
{
public function process(ContainerBuilder $container)
{
$em = $container->get('doctrine.orm.default_entity_manager');
$settings = $em->getRepository('AppBundle:Parameter')->findAll();
foreach($settings as $setting) {
// I like to prefix the parameters with "app."
// to avoid any collision with existing parameters.
$container->setParameter('app.'.strtolower($setting->getName()), $setting->getValue());
}
}
}
And finally, in your bundle class (i.e. src/AppBundle/AppBundle.php) you add the compiler pass:
namespace AppBundle;
use AppBundle\DependencyInjection\Compiler\ParamsCompilerPass;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Compiler\PassConfig;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerBuilder;
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Bundle\Bundle;
class AppBundle extends Bundle
{
public function build(ContainerBuilder $builder)
{
parent::build($builder);
$builder->addCompilerPass(new ParamsCompilerPass(), , PassConfig::TYPE_AFTER_REMOVING);
}
}
Now you can create a DoctrineFixture template to load the parameters you use all the time. With the TwigExtension you will still be able to call the parameter from the twig template and you can create a web UI to change some of the parameters/settings.