Category: PHP

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Silex and MongoDB simply

Using MongoDB in your Silex Project is quite easy.

I will show this with my Superleansilexplate and will integrate it there as an example.
Since i dont want to integrate MongoDB in Superleansilexplate it will just become an additional gist.

Given you have some smaller amount of data like a counter that needs to be stored or other loose coupled datasets, we simply speak to MongoDB “directly” and store the data via Doctrine MongoDB Abstraction Layer.
Since i presume the Data / Document Structure isnt that complex we dont use Doctrine MongoDB ODM (the Object Document Mapper).
If you want to use it instead, try this Silex Extensions.

Continue reading “Silex and MongoDB simply”

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Expeditions in the Cloud

Caution: Scepticism ahead!

So i’d like to share some of my experiences in the cloud since i am still trying to figure out if it its worth for me or if i am better suited with an VPS.
Maybe somebody feels like feedbackin.

I tried PHPFog for PHP and no.de by joyent for node.js.
First i have to admit: yes i only tried the free models and of course they are limited and because its free you cant expect to get it all, right?
Yes and thats true.

With PHPFog i set up an app based on symfony 1.4. After some inital problems due to some bugs on PHPFog side, i got it running.
I really like to mention the kind and immediate chat support by PHPFog. It really made me feel like dealin with humans and not only machines. Big up!
By then everything felt really smooth with git deploy, configurations, mysql setup etc.
But i had to shut down the app again, because there are restrictions to PHP which killed the app like disabling “file_get_contents for remote URLS”, probably only in the free model. But that killed it for me at that point.
So read this carefully before going to cloud: http://docs.phpfog.com/index.php/features/article/shared_vs_dedicated
I guess with dedicated hosting you get more power, sure.

Continue reading “Expeditions in the Cloud”

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Silex and the HTTP_CACHE

The HTTP_CACHE resp. the reverse proxy of Symfony is a pretty cool thing.
And as it is build-in Silex it can speed up the already fast micro framework massivly,
wich is good for me, as i am mainly workin with Silex right now.

To enable it you have to register it first like its shown in the docs:

 $app->register(new Silex\Provider\HttpCacheServiceProvider(), array(
 'http_cache.cache_dir' => __DIR__.'/cache/',
 ));

Also provide the writable cache dir.
Continue reading “Silex and the HTTP_CACHE”

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Enable Twig-Extensions in Silex

UPDATE
Please have look here for a updated version.

Note: its about Twig-extensions not about the former “Silex Twig Extension”, this now called TwigServiceProvider.

First fetch the Twig-extensions code and put them in your vendor dir:

git submodule add git://github.com/fabpot/Twig-extensions.git vendor/Twig-extensions/fabpot
git submodule init
git submodule update

Then register the autoloader by using registerPrefixes:

$app['autoloader']->registerPrefixes(array(
    'Twig_Extensions_'  => array(__DIR__.'/../vendor/Twig-extensions/fabpot/lib')));

Continue reading “Enable Twig-Extensions in Silex”

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Sending invalid Unicode via socket.io

Well you can try to, but it will end up almost probably in an disconnect which is caused by the browser.
As i have learned here.

Given you have a string which contains invalid unicode like:


This will trouble the browser and the socket connection.

If you prepare your json with PHP and  json_encode the Unicode will be escaped to some strings like these:

\ud83d\ude31\ud83d\ude31\ud83d\ude04\ud83d\ude04\ud83d\udc9c\ud83d\udc9c\ud83d\udc4a

But on clientside it will still result in invalid Unicode.
Continue reading “Sending invalid Unicode via socket.io”

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Silex Starter Stubs

There are several preconfigured Silex Apps on github. They let you start your Silex project in no time, which is good.
This makes Silex an even more simple rabbithole into the symfony2 world.

I started one myself and had a close look on the others, so i thought i share this.
They all differ a bit so you must choose what fits your needs the best.

They all follow some kind of “best practise” structure, some more, some less.

Continue reading “Silex Starter Stubs”

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Symfony 2 – Set Default Locale On Form Login #2

A small update/correction out of sequence:

A few weeks ago i described how to hook into the form login process in order to change the user session´s locale.

In the meantime a non backwards compatible code modification has been introduced that outdated this article. From now on (Symfony 2.0.4) the locale and default locale settings are maintained within the request object (and not as used to be in the session).

So, here is a little update – under reserve – because the locale setting´s logic will probably change again in the future.

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Silex, Twig und HTML5 BoilerPlate

Alright, there is a bundle for H5BP for symfony2 and there is Assetic, you can probably use both with Silex and thats just fine.
But in case you want to keep your Silex project lean (since its micro) you can use Twig and H5BP only and build / deploy your app from the outside.

With a little tuning of the H5BP build, of course / unfortunatly. (Ok thats the caveat)

So i have a structure like so:
web/
(this is the webroot, here is js/css/images, all that asset stuff and the index, here we use the recommended H5BP stuff’n’structure)
views/
(this is outside of webroot and here are all of the *.twig)
Continue reading “Silex, Twig und HTML5 BoilerPlate”