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Symfony 3.3: Upgrade, Autowiring & Autoconfigure

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Problematic Multi-Class Services

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Since autowiring works by finding a service whose id exactly matches the type-hint, it means that in the future, if someone type-hints MessageGenerator as an argument, this first, auto-registered service will be used! And actually, in this case, that's not a huge problem: MessageGenerator has a required constructor argument:

19 lines src/AppBundle/Service/MessageGenerator.php
... lines 1 - 4
class MessageGenerator
{
... lines 7 - 8
public function __construct(array $messages)
{
... line 11
}
... lines 13 - 17
}

So our app would explode with an exception. But still, that's a little unexpected... we really don't want this third service.

Fix 1) Don't auto-register the Service

There are three ways to fix this, depending on your app. First, you can explicitly exclude it. At the end of exclude, add Service/MessageGenerator.php:

52 lines app/config/services.yml
... lines 1 - 8
services:
... lines 10 - 16
AppBundle\:
... lines 18 - 20
exclude: '../../src/AppBundle/{Entity,Repository,Service/MessageGenerator.php}'
... lines 22 - 52

Now, go back to your terminal:

php bin/console debug:container --show-private

Boom! Back to just the two services. And because neither id is set to the class name, if someone tries to autowire using the MessageGenerator type-hint, they'll see a clear exception asking them to explicitly wire the value they want for that argument. In other words, MessageGenerator cannot be used for autowiring... but that's ok!

Fix 2) Choose one Service for Autowiring

Another solution is to choose one of your services to be the one that's used for autowiring. For example, suppose the app.encouraging_message_generator is used much more often, so you want that to be autowired for the MessageGenerator type-hint:

52 lines app/config/services.yml
... lines 1 - 8
services:
... lines 10 - 40
app.encouraging_message_generator:
class: AppBundle\Service\MessageGenerator
arguments:
- ['You can do it!', 'Dude, sweet!', 'Woot!']
public: true
... lines 46 - 52

Cool! Copy the old service id. Then, open legacy_aliases.yml and do the same thing we did before. I'll use the class as the service id, then setup an alias:

50 lines app/config/services.yml
... lines 1 - 8
services:
... lines 10 - 40
AppBundle\Service\MessageGenerator:
... lines 42 - 50

8 lines app/config/legacy_aliases.yml
services:
... lines 2 - 6
app.encouraging_message_generator: '@AppBundle\Service\MessageGenerator'

We still have two services in the container for the same class. But the first will be used for autowiring. If you need to pass the second instance as an argument, you'll need to explicitly configure that. We'll see how in a few minutes.

Fix 3) Refactor to a Single Class

The final option - which is really practical, but a bit more controversial - is to refactor your application to avoid this situation. For example, if you downloaded the start code, you should have a tutorial/ directory with a MessageManager.php file inside. Copy that and paste it into the Service/ directory:

26 lines src/AppBundle/Service/MessageManager.php
... lines 1 - 2
namespace AppBundle\Service;
class MessageManager
{
private $encouragingMessages = array();
private $discouragingMessages = array();
public function __construct(array $encouragingMessages, array $discouragingMessages)
{
$this->encouragingMessages = $encouragingMessages;
$this->discouragingMessages = $discouragingMessages;
}
public function getEncouragingMessage()
{
return $this->encouragingMessages[array_rand($this->encouragingMessages)];
}
public function getDiscouragingMessage()
{
return $this->discouragingMessages[array_rand($this->discouragingMessages)];
}
}

This class has two arguments - $encouragingMessages and $discouragingMessages - and a method to fetch a message from each. It's basically a combination of our two MessageGenerator services.

Technically, this class is already registered as a service. But of course, these two arguments can't be autowired. So, configure the service explicitly: AppBundle\Service\MessageManager: and under arguments, pass the encouraging messages and the discouraging messages:

46 lines app/config/services.yml
... lines 1 - 8
services:
... lines 10 - 40
AppBundle\Service\MessageManager:
arguments:
- ['You can do it!', 'Dude, sweet!', 'Woot!']
- ['We are *never* going to figure this out', 'Why even try again?', 'Facepalm']
public: true

Now that we have MessageManager, let's remove all the MessageGenerator stuff completely! Copy the old discouraging service id. Then, search for it:

git grep app.discouraging_message_generator

Ah, this is only used in GenusAdminController. In fact, both MessageGenerator services are only used there. Let's use the new MessageManager service - which I've purposely made public for now:

46 lines app/config/services.yml
... lines 1 - 8
services:
... lines 10 - 40
AppBundle\Service\MessageManager:
arguments:
- ['You can do it!', 'Dude, sweet!', 'Woot!']
- ['We are *never* going to figure this out', 'Why even try again?', 'Facepalm']
public: true

In GenusAdminController, use that: $this->get(MessageGenerator::class)->getEncouragingMessage():

97 lines src/AppBundle/Controller/Admin/GenusAdminController.php
... lines 1 - 16
class GenusAdminController extends Controller
{
... lines 19 - 64
public function editAction(Request $request, Genus $genus)
{
... lines 67 - 70
if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid()) {
... lines 72 - 77
$this->addFlash(
'success',
$this->get(MessageManager::class)->getEncouragingMessage()
);
... lines 82 - 90
}
... lines 92 - 95
}
}

Then the same below: $this->get(MessageGenerator::class)->getDiscouragingMessage():

97 lines src/AppBundle/Controller/Admin/GenusAdminController.php
... lines 1 - 16
class GenusAdminController extends Controller
{
... lines 19 - 64
public function editAction(Request $request, Genus $genus)
{
... lines 67 - 70
if ($form->isSubmitted() && $form->isValid()) {
... lines 72 - 77
$this->addFlash(
'success',
$this->get(MessageManager::class)->getEncouragingMessage()
);
... lines 82 - 85
} elseif ($form->isSubmitted()) {
$this->addFlash(
'error',
$this->get(MessageManager::class)->getDiscouragingMessage()
);
}
... lines 92 - 95
}
}

Time to celebrate! Delete the discouraging service, and go remove the legacy alias too: neither is being used. This refactoring was optional, but it makes life a little bit easier: I can now safely type-hint any argument with MessageManager and let autowiring do its magic.

And, our app isn't broken, which is always nice. Oh, and I'll delete the unused MessageGenerator class.

Next, we'll try out a special new type of dependency injection for controllers and clean up the rest of our service config.

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Mike P. Avatar
Mike P. Avatar Mike P. | posted 5 years ago

From which course is the discouraging_message_generator and encuraging_message_generator? I can't find it via Google on knpuniversity

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MolloKhan Avatar

Hey Mike P.!

It is in this tutorial, download the project and go to "src/AppBundle/Service/MessageGenerator.php", it's been used as a service twice, because it receives an array of messages and we only change the concept of what those messages represent

Cheers!

1 Reply
Mike P. Avatar

Ah ok, up until now the code has been built up by the tutorials before. But it seems that this code is an exception because its only inside the code script start directory and wasn't built by a course video before.

Reply
MolloKhan Avatar

Yeah, you are right, but sometimes we do that, so we can keep focused in the important things and not in the details :)

Cheers!

Reply
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Symfony 3

What PHP libraries does this tutorial use?

// composer.json
{
    "require": {
        "php": ">=5.5.9",
        "symfony/symfony": "3.3.0-RC1", // v3.3.0-RC1
        "doctrine/orm": "^2.5", // 2.7.5
        "doctrine/doctrine-bundle": "^1.6", // 1.10.3
        "doctrine/doctrine-cache-bundle": "^1.2", // 1.3.5
        "symfony/swiftmailer-bundle": "^2.3", // v2.6.7
        "symfony/monolog-bundle": "^3.1", // v3.2.0
        "symfony/polyfill-apcu": "^1.0", // v1.23.0
        "sensio/distribution-bundle": "^5.0", // v5.0.25
        "sensio/framework-extra-bundle": "^3.0.2", // v3.0.29
        "incenteev/composer-parameter-handler": "^2.0", // v2.1.4
        "composer/package-versions-deprecated": "^1.11", // 1.11.99.4
        "knplabs/knp-markdown-bundle": "^1.4", // 1.7.1
        "doctrine/doctrine-migrations-bundle": "^1.1", // v1.3.2
        "stof/doctrine-extensions-bundle": "^1.2" // v1.3.0
    },
    "require-dev": {
        "sensio/generator-bundle": "^3.0", // v3.1.7
        "symfony/phpunit-bridge": "^3.0", // v3.4.47
        "nelmio/alice": "^2.1", // v2.3.6
        "doctrine/doctrine-fixtures-bundle": "^2.3" // v2.4.1
    }
}
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