sfControlPanel plugin
The sfControlPanelPlugin proposes a web interface to manage a symfony project. It allows you to browse your project's functional and file structure, execute tasks, modify data in the database, and even more. It is a great development tool for those who are not fond of the command line.
Installation
Install the plugin
$ symfony plugin-install http://plugins.symfony-project.com/sfControlPanelPlugin
Enable the plugin sfControlPanel module on an application/environment base, via the enabled_modules setting of the settings.yml file.
For instance, to enable the module for the frontend application in the dev environment, open the apps/frontend/config/settings.yml and add under the dev key:
dev:
.settings:
enabled_modules: sfControlPanel
Be aware that it is not advised to enable the module on a production environment.
(*nix) Change the rights and owner of the project's files to allow your web server to modify them.
Clear the cache
$ symfony cc
Browse to the control panel module
http://localhost/frontend_dev.php/sfControlPanel
Features
MVC overview
The home page of the sfControlPanel module is an overview of the project's functional structure. In this page, you can browse the project's MVC layers, and get direct access to the code of a model method, an action, or a template.
Task manager
The task manager is a web replacement for the symfony Command Line Interface. Not only does it allow the execution of a symfony task by a single click, it also provides a comprehensive interface for complex tasks and a way to execute any tasks you want.
If you have PHP files in your batch/ directory, you will also be able to execute them from this page.
Simple task executer
The sfControlPanel/taskExecute action can replace the symfony command line. Instead of clicking on task names in the task manager sidebar, you can type the task directly in the URL bar. The action expects a freetask parameter, that must contain the task name and parameters. For instance, to call the clear-cache frontend task, you can simply call the following URL:
http://localhost/frontend_dev.php/sfControlPanel/taskExecute/freetask/clear-cache frontend
If you want to make it shorter, edit your routing.yml and add a web command shortcut:
symfony_command:
url: /symfony/:freetask
param: { module: sfControlPanel, action: taskExecute }
This way, you can call the same command as above by simply calling
http://localhost/frontend_dev.php/symfony/clear-cache frontend
Code browser
The sfControlPanel module proposes a code explorer for the files of your project. The file structure displayed on the left side on the window can be browsed the classical way, and syntax highlighting is automatically added to .php files.
Data reader
The sfControlPanel plugin proposes a data explorer that will use the connection settings of your databases.yml to connect to a database and display the list of tables it contains. Based on the admin generator, each table can be browsed, and each record can be edited or deleted, pretty much like what phpMyAdmin offers.
Each table explorer being automatically generated by symfony, you can add custom generator settings to alter which fields, filters, actions and sort criterias are used, the same way as you usually customized an admin generated theme. For that purpose, create a sfControlPanel_generator.yml file in the project's config/folder, and add in any generator customization you want. The primary labels are classes.
So for instance, if your database contains an article table, you can customize the fields displayed in the list view by writing in the config/sfControlPanel_generator.yml:
Article:
list:
display: [nbComments, content](=title,)
Restricting access
If you want to allow the sfControlPanel module in production, you should restrict access to it. Whether you use the sfGuardPlugin or another authentication solution, you will end up defining credentials for your users. If you want to allow access only to users having the admin credential, create a sfControlPanel directory in the application modules/ directory with only the following content:
apps/
frontend/
modules/
sfControlPanel/
config/
security.yml
And, in this security.yml, define the credentials you want:
all:
is_secure: on
credentials: [admin]
Clear the cache: your control panel module is now secure.
Known limitations
If your routing policy is not compatible with the default rules (/:module and /:module/:action), you have to define specific rules for the sfControlPanel module by adding at the beginning of your routing.yml:
sfControlPanel_index:
url: /sfControlPanel
param: { module: sfControlPanel, action: index }
sfControlPanel:
url: /sfControlPanel/:action/*
param: { module: sfControlPanel }
The plugin is not compatible with projects having a custom directory structure.
The data explorer will not work for tables that have to primary key. This is a known limitation of the admin generator.
Francois Zaninotto 
