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Symfony2 – Franz Jordán 2011
Now, every request is handled exactly the same. Instead of individual URLs executing different
PHP files, the front controller is always executed, and the routing of different URLs to different
parts of your application is done internally. This solves both problems with the original
approach. Almost all modern web apps do this - including apps like WordPress.
Stay Organized
But inside your front controller, how do you know which page should be rendered and how can
you render each in a sane way? One way or another, you'll need to check the incoming URI and
execute different parts of your code depending on that value. This can get ugly quickly:
// index.php
$request = Request::createFromGlobals();
$path = $request->getPathInfo(); // the URL being requested
if (in_array($path, array('', '/')) {
$response = new Response('Welcome to the homepage.');
} elseif ($path == '/contact') {
$response = new Response('Contact us');
} else {
$response = new Response('Page not found.', 404);
}
$response->send();
Solving this problem can be difficult. Fortunately it's exactly what Symfony is designed to do.
The Symfony Application Flow
When you let Symfony handle each request, life is much easier. Symfony follows the same simple
pattern for every request:
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