Symfony project bootstrap

Modern Symfony (PHP) project template created in order to follow 12-Factor-App principles. Great starter for small, medium and large projects.

Motivation

While working in few major IT companies in Poland, I saw how many people are struggling with creating simple, yet effective work environment. Sometimes people were just following Symfony Docs - they of course are good for learning, however they are not following the 12-Factor-App recommendations. Also, the way how Symfony recommends using Docker is far from perfect, hence I created this bootstrap.

PHP, Symfony and the database

This project is using PHP in version 8.3 and Symfony framework with version ^6.3. Also, the MySQL in version 8.2.0 is used.

I update this repository regularly to match next PHP and Symfony versions.

Required tools

Before we start, let's make sure that our host device has required programs. We will use docker and docker compose to manage containers.

To create this bootstrap I used the tools in version listed below. I cannot guarantee that this configuration will work automatically with newer versions.

docker --version
> Docker version 20.10.17, build 100c701

docker compose version
> Docker Compose version v2.6.1

Building environment for development

First things first you have to copy the development environment template. It' located in .devcontainer, I'd reccomend to leave it there and create a symbolic link.

ln -s ./etc/envs/compose.dev.yaml .
mv compose.dev.yaml compose.override.yaml

Now we'll use docker to build our image locally, with local architecture:

docker compose build

It may take few seconds, when it's completed proceed with running the container:

docker compose up --detach

Remember that you have installed the vendors in an image, however while creating container you've replaced built app folder with empty one (repository has no vendor folder intentionally). So, we have to proceed once again with app configuration:

docker compose exec app bash -ce "
    composer install
    chown -R $(id -u):$(id -g) .
  "

Now you're all set, you can visit the localhost with port 80, you should see the Symfony default application web page.

Also, a GET endpoint /api/hello-world was added to configure and show the functional test environment. It will always return static data:

{
  "message": "Hello, world"
}

If for some reason you'd like to enter the container, use the command below.

docker compose exec app bash

Removing local environment

You can remove local environment using the command below:

docker compose down --remove-orphans

Assumptions

Custom PHP image

In the main Dockerfile I used caddy-php: my own high-performance PHP image that uses Caddy as a runner and php-fpm as a daemon.

FROM ghcr.io/at-cloud-pro/caddy-php:3.0.0 AS app

You're free to change it to any image and configuration you'd like. You may read here what's bundled inside my image and create your own with my approach as a guidelines.

Application logs

Due to extensive configuration you will find all the logs stored in ./app/var/log folder, including Caddy, php-fpm access and error logs and xdebug outputs. Also files like dev.log, prod.log will be stored with all the messages logged with PSR LoggerInterface and monolog package.

Testing

Modern web applications must be well tested. To keep things simple I prepared ready to use suite for unit and functional tests.

Unit

Use the command below to run unit tests. Initially this project contains one test with one assertion (NullTest pattern).

docker compose exec app composer run-unit-tests

Functional

Use the command below to run functional tests:

docker compose exec app composer run-functional-tests

Functional test is testing here the hello-world endpoint.

Troubleshooting

This section will be expanded as first problem will come.