Access Service from Controller and/or Twig template - symfony

Question

Disclaimer: I'm slowly starting to get into Symfony and still have some problems understanding how the architecture works.
Currently I set up different Bundles (Services, right?) that should deliver different output for different routes. So far I got around adding a simple Twig template that loads stylesheets and scripts via Assetics and Twig-blocks. Now I added another Bundle that queries data via Buzz from a remote location, which worked fine as a standalone script, but I don't get around printing output in a Twig template.
The architecture of the original script is like the following (names made more generic):
Vendors - abstract class that serves as base for all remote request Bundles.
ServiceABC - abstract class that extends Vendors and defines Error handling and output preparation for the ABC service.
ClientXYZ - final class that extends Service_ABC, defines output parsing and normalization of the returned data.
This Bundle got a services.yml file:
# ~/MyApp/Bundle/ServiceABCBundle/Resources/config/services.yml
parameters:
service_abc_manager.class: MyApp\Bundle\ServiceABCBundle\Models\Service_ABC
location_manager.class: MyApp\Bundle\ServiceABCBundle\Models\Clients\ClientLocation
monitor_manager.class: MyApp\Bundle\ServiceABCBundle\Models\Clients\ClientMonitor
services:
service_abc_manager:
abstract: true
location_manager:
class: %location_manager.class%
parent: service_abc_manager
monitor_manager:
class: %monitor_manager.class%
parent: service_abc_manager
Names changed for easier reference - Typos by accident possible.
Now my problem/question is, that I don't really get behind the Symfony2 concept of how to get the output into the template.
namespace MyApp\Bundle\ServiceABCBundle\Controller;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
use MyApp\Bundle\ServiceABCBundle\Models\Clients\ClientLocation;
class DefaultController extends Controller
{
public function indexAction()
{
$services = array();
$services[] = $this->container->has('service_abc_manager');
$services[] = $this->container->has('location_manager');
$services[] = $this->container->has('client_location');
$services[] = $this->container->has('ClientLocation');
var_dump( $services );
$client = new ClientLocation();
var_dump( $client );
$response = $this->render(
'Service_ABC:Default:index.html.twig'
);
# $response->setCharset( 'utf-8' );
# $response->headers->set( 'Content-Type', 'text/html' );
return $response;
}
}
The output of the first array() named $services is always false and the $client = new ClientLocation(); throws an Exception that the class name wasn't found.
How can I access those Services/Bundle(parts)/Classes? And how would I render the output to a template?
Update
After I added the complete tree definition to Configuration()->getConfigTreeBuilder(), I'm able to see the definitions in the CLI:
class Configuration implements ConfigurationInterface
{
public function getConfigTreeBuilder()
{
$treeBuilder = new TreeBuilder();
$rootNode = $treeBuilder->root( 'myapp_service_abc' );
$rootNode
->children()
->scalarNode('service_abc_manager')->end()
->scalarNode('location_manager')->end()
->scalarNode('monitor_manager')->end()
->end()
;
return $treeBuilder;
}
}
The CLI command php app/console config:dump-reference myapp_service_abc now gives me the following output:
myapp_service_abc:
service_abc_manager: ~
location_manager: ~
monitor_manager: ~
I can as well see that the config data was loaded, when I var_dump( $loader ); inside MyAppServiceABCExtension right after $loader->load( 'services.yml' ); was called.
The output is the following:
object(Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\YamlFileLoader)
protected 'container' =>
object(Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerBuilder)
private 'definitions' =>
array
'service_abc_manager' =>
object(Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Definition)
'location_manager' =>
object(Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\DefinitionDecorator)
private 'parent' => string 'service_abc_manager'
// etc.
The problem itself remains: There's still a FALSE return value inside DefaultController()->indexAction() when I var_dump( $this->container->has( 'service_abc_manager' );. I as well tried var_dump( $this->container->has( 'location_manager' ); and var_dump( $this->container->has( 'myapp.service_abc_manager' ); with the same result.

Answer 1

You should not call your services from the twig file, but from the controller.
The role of the controller is to :
validate your forms if there were a form posted
call your services to get some stuffs to display in a view
initialize forms if there is a form to display
return a Response that typically contains a rendered twig view
Do not call your services using something like $client = new ClientLocation();, but call it using the service container. This will allow you to take the whole power of the dependancy injection offered by Symfony2.
Your controller will look like :
<?php
namespace MyApp\Bundle\ServiceABCBundle\Controller;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;
class DefaultController extends Controller
{
public function indexAction()
{
$locationService = $this->container->get('location_manager');
$someStuffs = $locationService->someMethod();
$response = $this->render(
'ServiceABCBundle:Default:index.html.twig', array('stuffs' => $someStuffs)
);
return $response;
}
}
From your twig file, you'll be able to use the stuffs variable :
{{ stuffs }} if your variable is a terminal ( a string, a number... )
{{ stuffs.attribute }} if your variable is an object or an array
About your services file, I am a bit confused, because your architecture does not look to be the standard Symfony2's one :
# ~/MyApp/Bundle/ServiceABCBundle/Resources/config/services.yml
Why your services.yml file isn't in the src/MyApp/SomethingBundle/Resources/config/ directory?
If you didn't already read it, I suggest you to have a look to the Symfony2 : The Big Picture documentation, which is the best way to start with Symfony2.