Customer Reviews

Symfony 1.3 Web Application Development

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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.