Accessing and using Symfony model layer from Outside the Symfony applications - php

Question

What I have is a symfony application, which contains some entities along with some repositories. A second non-symfony application should interface with the first one for interacting with some logic written in it (in this very moment just using the entities and their proper repositories).
Keep in mind that the first application could have its own autoload register etc.
I thought of an API class for external applications, which stays in the app directory. To use that the application should require a script. Here is the idea:
app/authInterface.php that the external application should require:
$loader = require __DIR__.'/autoload.php';
require_once (__DIR__.'/APIAuth.php');
return new APIAuth();
and an example of a working APIAuth I wrote (the code is kind of messy: remember this is just a try but you can get the idea):
class APIAuth
{
public function __construct()
{
//dev_local is a personal configuration I'm using.
$kernel = new AppKernel('dev_local', false);
$kernel->loadClassCache();
$kernel->boot();
$doctrine = $kernel->getContainer()->get('doctrine');
$em = $doctrine->getManager();
$users = $em->getRepository('BelkaTestBundle:User')->findUsersStartingWith('thisisatry');
}
by calling it by the shell everything works and I'm happy with it:
php app/authInterface.php
but I'm wondering if I'm doing in the best way possible in terms of:
resources am I loading just the resources I really need to run my code? Do I really need the kernel? That way everything is properly loaded - including the DB connection- but I'm not that sure if there are other ways to do it lighter
symfony logics am I interacting with symfony the right way? Are there better ways?

Answer 1

Symfony allows using its features from the command line. If you use a CronJob or another application, and want to call your Symfony application, you have two general options:
Generating HTTP endpoints in your Symfony application
Generating a command which executes code in your Symfony application
Both options will be discussed below.
HTTP endpoint (REST API)
Create a route in your routing configuration to route a HTTP request to a Controller/Action.
# app/config/routing.yml
test_api:
path: /test/api/v1/{api_key}
defaults: { _controller: AppBundle:Api:test }
which will call the ApiController::testAction method.
Then, implement the testAction with your code you want to excecute:
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
public function testAction() {
return new Response('Successful!');
}
Command
Create a command line command which does something in your application. This can be used to execute code which can use any Symfony service you have defined in your (web)application.
It might look like:
// src/AppBundle/Command/TestCommand.php
namespace AppBundle\Command;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Command\ContainerAwareCommand;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputArgument;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputOption;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\OutputInterface;
class GreetCommand extends ContainerAwareCommand
{
protected function configure()
{
$this
->setName('myapp:section:thecommand')
->setDescription('Test command')
->addArgument(
'optionname',
InputArgument::OPTIONAL,
'Test option'
)
;
}
protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
{
$option = $input->getArgument('optionname');
if ($option) {
$text = 'Test '.$option;
} else {
$text = 'Test!';
}
$output->writeln($text);
}
}
Look here for documentation.
Call your command using something like
bin/console myapp:section:thecommand --optionname optionvalue
(Use app/console for pre-3.0 Symfony installations.)
Use whichever option you think is best.
One word of advice. Do not try to use parts of the Symfony framework when your application is using the full Symfony framework. Most likely you will walk into trouble along the way and you're making your own life hard.
Use the beautiful tools you have at your disposal when you are already using Symfony to build your application.