SF2 : How to create a Service in 5 minutes ? Why ?

Let’s have a shortcut : a service is a set of specialized functions, packaged into a specific bundle. On a global approach, it’s like a dedicated task.

In my dev, I love service. Some of them I have written are for example in charge of:

• SMS sending (using multiple providers, completely transparent)
• Geocoding an address (using a cache, but also again trying multiple geocoding engines),
• Processing emails,
• Generating documents,
• …

Let’s start

1. Let’s create a new bundle (called AB3/ServiceBundle).

   php app/console generate:bundle

   Usually, I use “annotation” to declare the project.

2. Create a new controller (MainController) in AB3/ServiceBundle/Controller directory with couple of methods

   namespace AB3\ServiceBundle\Controller;
   class ServiceController {
     public function funcOne() { return "funcOne"; }
     public function funcTwo() { return "funcTwo"; }
   }
   

3. Here is the main and most important part: declare your service. By default, Symfony2 uses xml file, which I don’t like. So, let’s do it using annotation instead, which is more convenient IMO.
   In AB3\ServiceBundle\DependencyInjection, edit “AB3ServiceExtension.php” and replace

   $loader = new Loader\XmlFileLoader($container, new FileLocator(__DIR__.'/../Resources/config'));
   $loader->load('services.xml');

   by

   $loader = new Loader\YamlFileLoader($container, new FileLocator(__DIR__.'/../Resources/config'));
   $loader->load('services.yml');

4. In AB3\ServiceBundle\Resources\config. Delete services.xml and create a new services.yml file instead, where we will declare the service entry points as below:

   parameters:
       my.service.class: AB3\ServiceBundle\Controller\CacheController
   
   services:
       my.service:
           class: "%gesloc.cache.class%"

   2 important notes:
   – Under parameters, we declare the class name.
   – But the real stuff is under services: there, we declare the service name (my.service) and the class it belongs to

5. Then to consume your service from any external controller:

   public function indexAction() {
   [...]
       $this->get('my.service')->funcOne();
       $this->get('my.service')->funcTwo();
   [...]
   }

   And that’s all !!!