symfony module management

Question

I have way too many modules in my application. Currently my modules are namespaced, but what I'd like to do is have a directory structure so I can get rid of this redundant and annoying namespacing.

For instance, for modules named "xModule1, xModule2, xModule3", I'd like to have a directory structure like this:

-x
  -module1
    -actions and templates
  -module2
    -actions and templates
  -module3
    - actions and templates

Surely the developers at symfony know that people would like to use their framework to develop large applications. So how is module organization like this done?

I've done a lot of work in Java/Spring, and because source is component scanned, you can arrange your controllers and jsp files in nicely organized hierarchies. Is this somehow possible with Symfony?

Answer 1

No, this is not possible with Symfony. The structure of your modules and their actions and templates is expected in a fixed file system layout and I haven't heard anything about that changing.

I've run into the same problem you're facing where a very large site ended up with 30+ modules in a single application. At first it seemed cumbersome but after dealing with it for a while I found that the single location to search for a specific module was in fact beneficial instead of having to guess through sub-structures until I got what I was after. Seeing that structure grow and grow also pushes me to respect adding new modules only when it's absolutely necessary, folding new functionality into existing modules and refactoring existing modules to work with new enhancements whenever possible.

Symfony does have auto-loading features that will work for your library folders however, allowing you to have lib/one/two/three/Object.class.php or any other structure you see fit.

Answer 2

If you have so many modules, you could consider to move some functionality into plugins (i.e. create your own plugins).
The benefit is that you can use this functionality also in other projects.

Or you can group your modules into applications. You can have as many applications as you want, not only backend and frontend.

Answer 3

I've wondered about the same thing, especially as many configuration files need to be set either at application level or individual module level. It could useful to be able to cascade configurations to a set of modules.

As mentioned above, it seems the available solutions are:

• deal with lots of modules
• create separate applications (which will create some wieldy duplication)
• refactor your modules to be as efficient as practical (i.e. multiple controllers & views per module)