Symfony 1.3 Web Application Development [Paperback]

Tim Bowler (Author), Wojciech Bancer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2009

This book is an example driven tutorial that takes you through the process of building Model-View-Controller-based web applications. You will create and develop an online store application. It also covers best practices for better and quicker application development.This book is for PHP web developers who want to get started with Symfony 1.3. If you are already using Symfony 1.0 or are new to Symfony, you will learn how to use it in the best way to produce better applications faster.Basic knowledge of Object Oriented design and ORM will be quite helpful.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tim Bowler

Tim Bowler has a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, a Masters Degree in Internet Technologies and E-Commerce, and is currently studying for his PhD part time. He has over 10 years of experience in web application development and project management. His experience and determination has gained him membership in the Institute of Engineering and Technology and he is a Chartered IT Professional. Tim started his career developing web applications in PHP4 for a digital media agency in London. Later he introduced agile and scrum into the development process along with Symfony. Tim is now the Managing Director of Agile Labs which is a web application development and agile coaching company.

Wojciech Bancer

Wojciech Bancer has a Master's Science Degree in Computer Science. He has over 8 years experience in web application development. In 2007, after passing the Zend exam, he gained a Zend Certified Engineer for PHP5 certificate. Wojciech started his career developing web applications in PHP4 and PHP5, as a freelancer. Later he started working for a digital media agency in London, where he was introduced to Symfony and scrum process. Currently he is a Lead Developer at Agile Labs, which is a web application development and agile coaching company in London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (September 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847194567
• ISBN-13: 978-1847194565
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,455,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Symfony Quickstart Guide with Some Caveats, December 1, 2009

By 

James Herrmann - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Symfony 1.3 Web Application Development (Paperback)

I purchased this book around the beginning of November. Construction and print quality are both very good. From a writing standpoint, the book is easy to read and conversational. There are some typos (I've found around 10) but none of them are in code samples which is important. I'll be submitting these back to the publisher so later versions are corrected.

For those learning Symfony, this book is a mixed bag. Beginning with the positives, you will learn the basic approach to developing in Symfony. Areas I particularly liked include instruction on project setup (chap1&2), forms (chap4) and optimization (chap9).

On the downside, Propel is the ORM that is referenced throughout this text. There are virtually no code samples in regard to Doctrine. This is particularly egregious because Doctrine is the default ORM library for Symfony as of version 1.3. As Fabien Potencier (creator of Symfony) puts it, "As Doctrine is the future of symfony, we decided to make it the default choice when creating a new project". Don't assume the book contains code samples for both. It doesn't.

Like myself, you may find yourself using the Symfony website/forums A LOT to get additional information on topics. This is because the book is somewhat light on details. I would liken it much more in-line with the Visual QuickStart books that Peachpit produces. The idea being, get something up-and-running quickly.

The book does not cover Unit and Functional testing using the lime Testing Framework; a built-in library. This is a significant omission. Automated testing is an integral component of today's RAD programming frameworks (ala Rails).

As for Symfony 1.3 specific information, they do a pretty good job. For instance, the use of csrf_secret for securing forms is discussed. However, 1.3 offers easy ways to use Swiftmailer to send emails. This is not covered. The old pattern is used.

If you are going to use Propel and are a Symfony beginner, you'll be in good shape with this book. Otherwise, I'd say wait for 'Practical symfony 1.4 for Doctrine' or use the website's tutorials. The Symfony framework itself is a wonderful product. I've enjoyed using it immensely.