How to regenerate routes cache when the configuration changes in Symfony 2 - php

Question

I'm currently writing a custom route loader in Symfony 2 that will generate routes based on some configuration options defined in the main config file. The problem is that Symfony caches routes generated by custom routes loaders. Is there a way for me to update the cache when that config file changes?
I defined a configuration like this in app/config/config.yml
admin:
entities:
- BlogBundle\Entity\Post
- BlogBundle\Entity\Comment
My route loader read the config file and generates some routes based on the entities. Now the problem is that once those routes are generated and cached by Symfony I can't change them unless I manually call php app/console cache:clear. What I mean is if I add an entity to the config:
admin:
entities:
- BlogBundle\Entity\Post
- BlogBundle\Entity\Comment
- TrainingBundle\Entity\Training
I will have to manually clear the cache again with php app/console cache:clear in order to create and cache the new routes. I want the routes cache to be invalidated if I change the config, so that a new request to the server will force the regeneration of the routes.

Answer 1

Option 1
If your custom loader class can gain access to the kernel or the container (via DI), you could call the console cache clear command from that class.
E.g.
namespace AppBundle\MyLoader;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Console\Application;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\ArrayInput;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\BufferedOutput;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
class MyLoader
{
private $kernel;
public function __construct($kernel)
{
$this->kernel = $kernel;
}
public function myFunction()
{
$application = new Application($this->kernel);
$application->setAutoExit(false);
$input = new ArrayInput(array(
'command' => 'cache:clear',
'--env' => 'prod',
));
// You can use NullOutput() if you don't need the output
$output = new BufferedOutput();
$application->run($input, $output);
// return the output, don't use if you used NullOutput()
$content = $output->fetch();
// return new Response(""), if you used NullOutput()
return new Response($content);
}
}
Ref: Call a Command from a Controller
Disclaimer before someone points it out; Injection the kernel/conatiner is not considered "best pratice", but can be a solution.
Option 2
You could also write you own console command that extends Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Command\ContainerAwareCommand that just calls the clear cache command.
Ref ; Call Command from Another
Option 3
This answer also gives you another option