1. From the plugin page, download the most recent release to your server.  In my case it was 0.1.2 and I put it in my data directory:

   wget http://plugins.symfony-project.org/get/sfCKEditorPlugin/sfCKEditorPlugin-0.1.2.tgz

2. Install the plugin from the local location on the server:

   symfony plugin:install data/sfCKEditorPlugin-0.1.2.tgz

3. Download and extract the CKEditor and CKFinder tarball files to your web/js directory.  This creates two new directories, namely web/js/ckeditor and web/js/ckfinder.
4. Create/edit your project’s config/autoload.yml file to read:

   autoload:
     ckeditor:
       name:       ckeditor
       path:       %SF_WEB_DIR%/js/ckeditor/
       recursive:  on
   
     ckfinder:
       name:       ckfinder
       path:       %SF_WEB_DIR%/js/ckfinder/
       recursive:  on

5. Edit your application’s config/app.yml file to read:

   all:
     ckeditor:
       basePath:         '/js/ckeditor/'
     ckfinder:
       basePath:         '/js/ckfinder/'

6. Include the javascript files in your application’s config/view.yml file:

   javascripts:    [/js/ckeditor/ckeditor.js, /js/ckfinder/ckfinder.js]

7. Enable CKFinder via your application’s configuration class file, within the configure() method:

   class yourappConfiguration extends sfApplicationConfiguration
   {
   	public function configure()
   	{
   		sfConfig::set('app_ckfinder_active', true);
   	}
   }

8. Enable CKFinder for the current user.  This step will require you to implement your own security method to do properly, but essentially you need to edit the CheckAuthentication() function in the web/js/ckfinder/config.php file so that it returns a true value.  Be careful on this one.  Read the comments in that function and do it right!

   function CheckAuthentication()
   {
   	// WARNING : DO NOT simply return "true". By doing so, you are allowing
   	// "anyone" to upload and list the files in your server. You must implement
   	// some kind of session validation here.
   
   	//this is just a sample function call... create your own
   	if (current_user_is_authenticated()) {
   		return true;
   	} else {
   		return false;
   	}
   }

9. Clear your Symfony cache:

   symfony cc

10. A simple form setup should do the trick now:

    $this->widgetSchema['filed_to_enhance'] = new sfWidgetFormCKEditor();

The above should work for both a simple CRUD generation as well as the admin generator.

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="/sfPropelPlugin/css/global.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="/sfPropelPlugin/css/default.css" />

It took a bunch of digging, but I finally realized there is now a sf command for ensuring these are in place:

symfony plugin:publish-assets

public static function doSelect(Criteria $criteria, PropelPDO $con = null)
	{
		if(count($criteria->getOrderByColumns()) == 0)
		{
				$criteria->addAscendingOrderByColumn(self::NAME);
		} 

		return self::populateObjects(self::doSelectStmt($criteria, $con));
	}

Of course, I’m using Propel… and I have a “name” column that I wanted to alphabetize on. But you get the point. Edit the above as you see fit for your needs.

$this->foo = 'bar';

And then you could call it in either your action’s template file or the application’s layout file like this:

<?php echo $bar ?>

But that’s no longer the case… for good reason, but I won’t get into that here.  Now you’re forced to use slots.  So If you want to use the same logic above, you must pass the variable via a slot in your action like this:

$this->getResponse()->setSlot('foo', 'bar');

Then you can call that variable value from within your layout template like this:

<?php echo get_slot('foo') ?>

You can also make the assignment from within your action’s template file like this:

<?php slot('foo', 'bar') ?>

And you’ll still call the variable the same way in your layout template.

sfContext::getInstance()->getRouting()->getCurrentInternalUri();

That gives you the current route. So I included a hidden input in my login form that looked like this:

<input type="hidden" name="route" value="<?php echo sfContext::getInstance()->getRouting()->getCurrentInternalUri(); ?>" />

And now, I can simply redirect the user back to the page they logged in from by grabbing that route variable.

This is a bit more you can do with this to take it a step further for your needs. I’m simply copying from the Symfony book site:

// If you require a URL like

http://myapp.example.com/article/21

$routing = sfContext::getInstance()->getRouting();

// Use the following in article/read action
$uri = $routing->getCurrentInternalUri();
 => article/read?id=21

$uri = $routing->getCurrentInternalUri(true);
 => @article_by_id?id=21

$rule = $routing->getCurrentRouteName();
 => article_by_id

// If you just need the current module/action names,
// remember that they are actual request parameters
$module = $request->getParameter('module');
$action = $request->getParameter('action');

Generating links in a Template

link_to('Anchor Text', 'action/method?id=123', array('class' => 'some-class', 'target' => '_blank'))

Below, the second parameter determines whether or not to send an absolute URL

url_for('action/method?id=123', true)

Generating links in an Action or Controller

$this->getController()->genUrl('action/method?id=123')

Generating links from within the Model

Below, the second parameter of genUrl() determines whether or not to send an absolute URL

sfContext::getInstance()->getController()->genUrl('action/method?id=123', true)

Let’s assume you are working on a Wiki for your company website.  And that any user signed into your site can edit information within a Wiki page.  For this example, let’s assume all wiki pages have a ‘heading’ attribute and we want to allow the user to edit that heading for any page.  The following code makes some assumptions about how your system may be setup, but should provide a general example of how to achieve what you need to do.

Within your template:

<?php use_helper('Javascript') ?>
<?php if ($sf_user->isAuthenticated()): ?>
    <div id="edit_heading"><?php echo $page->getHeading() ?></div>
    <?php echo input_in_place_editor_tag('edit_heading,
                   'page/editInLine?attribute=Heading&id='.$page->getId(),
                   array('cols' => '60', 'rows' => '3', )) ?>
<?php else: ?>
    <?php echo $page->getHeading() ?>
<?php endif; ?>

This snippet of template is checking to see if the user is signed in.  If they are, it is allowing them to edit the heading of the page.  The editing will call a method named executeEditInLine within the actions.class.php file of the page module.  So now let’s create the Action method.  Note that this example is simplified.  You should do some data cleansing as well as perhaps some user authentication.  But here we go:

public function executeEditInLine(sfWebRequest $request)
{
    //load the proper page to work with
    $page = PagePeer::retrieveByPk($request->getParameter('id'));

    //determine the proper get and set methods to be used
    $set_func = 'set'.$request->getParameter('attribute');
    $get_func = 'get'.$request->getParameter('attribute');

    //same the current version of your page before performing the update
    $page->saveCurrentVersion();

    //set the new value, save it and return it back for page display
    $page->$set_func($request->getParameter('value'));
    $page->save();
    die($page->$get_func());
}

Notice how the actual data being sent is done so within the parameter named ‘value.’

The truth is that ever since I started using Symfony, my projects have become more robust, easier to work with and overall just a bit better.  I’ve truly enjoyed working in this environment, but I find that I tend to ask myself the same questions more than once.  I have to hand it to the Symfony team… they’ve done a good job with online documentation, but it just never seems to “cover it all.”  My Google toolbar search history shows a huge number of queries that begin with the word symfony.  And I find that I’m often trying to dig up the same information I tracked down in the past.  I make great use of the help forum.  I would guess about 50% of my questions are answered there via searching alone.

So here I am.  Out of necessity, I’ve decided to go ahead and start recording my finds and report on them here in hopes of being able to find my same answers more quickly in the future.  Since I owned this domain, I figured I’d do it all in a public blog in case anyone else finds use from my findings.