Building Single Page Application (SPA) with Symfony2 and AngularJS

Building SPA with Symfony2 and
AngularJS
Antonio Perić-Mažar
02.10.2014, ZgPHP Conference 2014
https://joind.in/12007

About me
• Antonio Perić-Mažar,
mag. ing. comp.
• CEO @ locastic
• Software developer, Symfony2
• Sylius Awesome Contributor :)
• www.locastic.com
• antonio@locastic.com
• twitter: @antonioperic

Who we are?
• locastic (www.locastic.com)
• Web and mobile development
• UI/UX design
• Located in Split, Croatia

Symfony2 AngularJS
Usage, language Backend, PHP Frontend, Javascript
Dependency Injection Yes Yes
Templating Twig HTML
Form component Yes Yes
Routing component Yes Yes
MVC Yes Yes
Testable Yes Yes
Services Yes Yes
Events Yes Yes
i18n Yes Yes
Dependency management Yes Yes
Deteatciled comparison: http://vsch.a..rt.com/compare/a..n. gularjs/vs/symfony

SPA
 Aka SPI (Single Page interface)
 desktop apps UX
 HTML / JS / CSS / etc in single page load
 fast
 AJAX and XHR

SPA Arhitecture
Backend (rest api) with Symfony2
Frontend with AngularJs
Separation or combination?

RESTful ws
Simpler than SOAP & WSDL
Resource-oriented (URI)
Principles:
HTTP methods (idempotent & not)
stateless
directory structure-like URIs
XML or JSON (or XHTML)
GET (vs HEAD), POST, PUT (vs PATCH), DELETE, OPTIONS

Building Rest API with SF2
There is bundle for everything in Sf2. Right?
So lets use some of them!

What we need?
JMSSerializerBundle
FOSRestBundle
NelmioApiDocBundle

JMSSerializerBundle
(de)serialization
via annotations / YAML / XML / PHP
integration with the Doctrine ORM
handling of other complex cases (e.g. circular references)

LocasticBundleTodoBundleEntityTodo:
# exclusion_policy: ALL
exclusion_policy: NONE
properties:
# description:
# expose: true
createdAt:
# expose: true
exclude: true
deadline:
type: DateTime<'d.m.Y. H:i:s'>
# expose: true
done:
# expose: true
serialized_name: status

fos_rest:
disable_csrf_role: ROLE_API
param_fetcher_listener: true
view:
view_response_listener: 'force'
formats:
xml: true
json: true
templating_formats:
html: true
format_listener:
rules:
- { path: ^/, priorities: [ html, json, xml ], fallback_format: ~, prefer_extension: true }
exception:
codes:
'SymfonyComponentRoutingExceptionResourceNotFoundException': 404
'DoctrineORMOptimisticLockException': HTTP_CONFLICT
messages:
'SymfonyComponentRoutingExceptionResourceNotFoundException': true
allowed_methods_listener: true
access_denied_listener:
json: true
body_listener: true

/**
* @ApiDoc(
* resource = true,
* description = "Get stories from users that you follow (newsfeed)",
* section = "Feed",
* output={
* "class" = "LocasticBundleFeedBundleEntityStory"
* },
* statusCodes = {
* 200 = "Returned when successful",
* 400 = "Returned when bad parameters given"
* }
* )
*
* @RestView(
* serializerGroups = {"feed"}
* )
*/
public function getFeedAction()
{
$this->get('locastic_auth.auth.handler')->validateRequest($this->get('request'));
return $this->getDoctrine()->getRepository('locastic.repository.story')->getStories($this-
>get('request')->get('me'));
}

Templating
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8" />
<title>{% block title %}Welcome!{% endblock %}</title>
{% block stylesheets %}

{#<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ asset('css/normalize.css') }}">#}
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ asset('css/main.css') }}">

<link rel="stylesheet" href="//netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="//netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.0.0/css/font-awesome.css" />
<script src="{{ asset('js/vendor/modernizr-2.6.2.min.js') }}"></script>
{% endblock %}
<link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="{{ asset('favicon.ico') }}" />
</head>
<body>
{% block body %}{% endblock %}
{% block javascripts %}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.16/angular.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://code.angularjs.org/1.2.16/angular-route.min.js"></script>
<script src="{{ asset('js/main.js') }}"></script>
{% endblock %}
</body>
</html>

Templating
Problem:
{{ interpolation tags }} - used both by twig and AngularJS

Templating
{% verbatim %}
{{ message }}
{% endverbatim %}

Templating
var phpDayDemoApp = angular.module('phpDayDemoApp', [],
function($interpolateProvider) {
$interpolateProvider.startSymbol('[[');
$interpolateProvider.endSymbol(']]');
});
Now we can use
{% block content %}
[[ message ]] {# rendered by AngularJS #}
{% end block %}
Tweak Twig lexer delimiters? Bad idea.

Templating
Using assetic for minimize
{% javascripts
"js/angular-modules/mod1.js"
"#s/angular-modules/mod2.js"
"@AngBundle/Resources/public/js/controller/*.js"
output="compiled/js/app.js"
%}
<script type="text/javascript" src="{{ asset_url }}"></script>
{% endjavascripts %}

Templating
Using assetic for minimize
Since Angular infers the controller's dependencies from the names of
arguments to the controller's constructor function, if you were to minify the
JavaScript code for PhoneListCtrl controller, all of its function arguments
would be minified as well, and the dependency injector would not be able
to identify services correctly.
Use an inline annotation where, instead of just providing the function, you
provide an array. This array contains a list of the service names, followed by
the function itself.
function PhoneListCtrl($scope, $http) {...}
phonecatApp.controller('phpDayCtrl', ['$scope', '$http', PhoneListCtrl]);

Templating
Frontend developers still can use their tools like:
Bower
Grunt
Etc.

Managing routes
Client side:
ngRoute
independent since Angular 1.1.6
hashbang #! & HTML5 mode
<base href="/">
$locationProvider
.html5Mode(true)
.hashPrefix('!');
Also good for SEO!

Managing routes
http://localhost/todos
http://localhost/#todos
Resolving conflicts
Fallback, managing 404
angular:
path: '/{route}'
defaults: { _controller: LocasticAngularBundle:Default:index}
requirements:
route: ".+"

Managing routes – client side
// module configuration...$routeProvider.when('/todos/show/:id', {
templateUrl : 'todo/show',
controller : 'todoController'
})
// receive paramssfugDemoApp.controller('todoController', function($scope, $http, $routeParams){
$scope.todo = {};
$http
.get('/api/todo/show/' + $routeParams.id)
.success(function(data){
$scope.todo = data['todo'];
});
});

Managing routes
Think of using FOSJsRoutingBundle for Frontend route
managament
<script
src="{{ asset('bundles/fosjsrouting/js/router.js') }}"></script>
<script src="{{ path('fos_js_routing_js', {"callback":
"fos.Router.setData"}) }}"></script>
my_route_to_expose_with_defaults:
pattern: /blog/{page}
defaults: { _controller: AcmeBlogBundle:Blog:index, page: 1
}

Managing routes – server side
locastic_rest_todo_getall:
pattern: /api/get-all
defaults:
_controller: LocasticRestBundle:Todo:getAll
locastic_rest_todo_create:
pattern: /api/create
defaults:
_controller: LocasticRestBundle:Todo:create
locastic_rest_todo_show:
pattern: /api/show/{id}
defaults:
_controller: LocasticRestBundle:Todo:show

Translations
AngularJS has its own translation system
I18N/L10N . But it might be interesting to monitor
and centralize translations from your backend
Symfony.
JMSTranslationBundle

Forms
Symfony Forms <3
We don't want to throw them away
Build custom directive

Forms
sfugDemoApp.directive('ngToDoForm', function() {
return {
restrict: 'E',
template: '<div class="todoForm">Form will be!</div>'
}
});
'A' - <span ng-sparkline></span>
'E' - <ng-sparkline></ng-sparkline>
'C' - <span class="ng-sparkline"></span>
'M' - <!-- directive: ng-sparkline →
Usage of directive in HTML:
<ng-to-do-form></ng-to-do-form>

Forms
return {
restrict: 'E',
templateUrl: '/api/form/show.html'
}
});

Forms
return {
restrict: 'E',
templateUrl: '/api/form/show.html'
}
});
locastic_show_form:
pattern: /form/show.html
defaults:
_controller: LocasticWebBundle:Default:renderForm
public function renderFormAction()
{
$form = $this->createForm(new TodoType());
return $this->render('LocasticWebBundle::render_form.html.twig', array(
'form' => $form->createView()
));
}

Forms
Template behind directive
<form class="form-inline" role="form" style="margin-bottom: 30px;">
Create new todo:
<div class="form-group">
{{ form_label(form.description) }}
{{ form_widget(form.description, {'attr': {'ng-model': 'newTodo.description', 'placeholder':
'description', 'class': 'form-control'}}) }}
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label class="sr-only" for="deadline">Deadline</label>
<input type="text" class="form-control" id="deadline" placeholder="deadline (angular-ui)" ng-model="
newTodo.deadline">
</div>
<input type="button" class="btn btn-default" ng-click="addNew()" value="add"/>
</form>

Submitting forms?
When the AngularJS $http service POSTs data the header application/x-www-form-urlencoded
is never set (unlike jQuery’s $.ajax()). Also, the $http data is not serialized
when sent. Both of these facts mean that the $_POST variable is never set properly by
php. Without the $_POST variable Symfony’s built in form handling cannot be used.
The fix is actually pretty simple:
 angular needs to forced into setting a header
 the data needs to be serialized
 and the data needs to be normalized into a multidimensional array.

Submitting forms?
var postData = {
formtype_name: {
id: some_id,
name: some_name
}
};
$http({
method: "POST",
url: url,
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
},
data: $.param(postData)
});

Same-origin policy
For security reasons, web browsers prevent JavaScript to Ajax requests (XMLHttpRequest)
to other areas ( Same-origin policy ).
An example of exception thrown by the browser:
XMLHttpRequest cannot load http://api.mondomaine.com/v1/maressource.json.
Invalid HTTP status code 405
 Using JSOP (Json with Padding) – easy with FOSRestApi
 Configure server (simple and stupid)
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName mon-appli-angular.com DocumentRoot
/var/www/some-ng-app/ Alias /api /var/www/some-ng-app/ <Directory xxxx>
</Directory> </VirtualHost> </VirtualHost>
 Use Cors
CORS (Cross-origin resource sharing) is an elegant and standardized response to allow
Cross-domain requests.
Be careful though, the CORS mechanism is not supported by all browsers (guess
which ) …

Testing
Symfony and AngularJS are designed to test. So write test
Behat
PHPUnit
PHPSpec
Jasmine
…
Or whatever you want just write tests

Summary
The cleanest way is to separate backend and frontend. But there is some
advantages to use both together.
Twig + HTML works well.
Assetic Bundle is very useful to minify bunches of Javascript files used by
AngularJs
Translation in the template. the data in the API payload does not need
translation in most cases. Using Symfony I18N support for the template
makes perfect sense.
Loading of Option lists. Say you have a country list with 200+ options. You
can build an API to populate a dynamic dropdown in angularjs, but as
these options are static, you can simply build that list in twig. Forms in

And remember
Keep controllers small and stupid, master Dependency
injection, delegate to services and events.

QA
Please rate my talk
https://joind.in/12007
follow me on twitter: @antonioperic

Building Single Page Application (SPA) with Symfony2 and AngularJS

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