How to Switch from YAML/XML Configs to PHP Today with Symplify

• 3 min
• Jul, 2020
• Updated Aug, 2020
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Break-Even Automation

With legacy migrations, we have to handle a lot of processes that are automated. If you work on 1 project for many years, it's a matter of habit to handle it manually. But handling 3 projects a month makes you think, how to automated any repeated work. It's cheaper, faster, and more reliable. The same way the writing tests are.

We made symplify/config-transformer to handle this work for us.

Credit for inspiration first reported bugs, feature feedback, and exceptional test cases goes to archeoprog and Ryan Weaver. Their input helped get the Symplify package to high quality and covered Symfony features I didn't even know. Thank you, guys!

1. Install symplify/config-transformer

composer require symplify/config-transformer --dev

2. Run switch-format Command

This command has 2 requires options and 1 argument:

• --input-format - the format of the config you want to convert
• --output-format - desired output format (PHP is the default, YAML is also supported, useful for legacy projects with XML and but old Symfony)
• the argument is paths to file/s or directories you want to convert

vendor/bin/config-transformer switch-format --input-format yaml app/config
vendor/bin/config-transformer switch-format --input-format xml app/config

Are you lazy like me? Use shortcut:

vendor/bin/config-transformer switch-format -i yaml -o php app/config
vendor/bin/config-transformer switch-format -i xml -o php app/config

Why am I Putting the Path Argument as the Last one?

You've noticed, the path argument is the last in the command line. That's rather confusing, right?

# conventional
vendor/bin/config-transformer PATH switch-format -i yaml -o php

# convenient
vendor/bin/config-transformer switch-format -i yaml -o php PATH

Do you need to switch multiple paths in separated commits or apply them on multiple projects?
Re-use previous command and change the last part only.

This is how my real workflow looks like: from low hanging fruit of 1 file to the main config, to all packages. Each followed by a separated commit, so it's easier to review and fix in case of regression.

vendor/bin/config-transformer switch-format -i yaml -o php ecs.yaml
# commit

vendor/bin/config-transformer switch-format -i yaml -o php rector.yaml
# commit

vendor/bin/config-transformer switch-format -i yaml -o php app/packages
# commit

vendor/bin/config-transformer switch-format -i yaml -o php app/config/config.yaml
# commit

3. Upgrade paths to PHP in Extensions and Kernel

The config format switch is one part; the next is to update loaders in PHP code. Again, it's valid to handle it manually with search & replace in PHPStorm.

 use Symfony\Component\Config\FileLocator;
 use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerBuilder;
-use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\YamlFileLoader;
+use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\PhplFileLoader;
 use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\DependencyInjection\Extension;

 final class SomeExtension extends Extension
 {
     public function load(array $configs, ContainerBuilder $container)
     {
-        $loader = new YamlFileLoader($container, new FileLocator());
+        $loader = new PhplFileLoader($container, new FileLocator());
-        $loader->load(__DIR__ . '/../Resources/config/controller.yaml');
+        $loader->load(__DIR__ . '/../Resources/config/controller.php');
-        $loader->load(__DIR__ . '/../Resources/config/events.yaml');
+        $loader->load(__DIR__ . '/../Resources/config/events.php');
     }
 }

But in case your code is not standard and can't be bothered with correct regular expressions, Rector got you covered:

composer require rector/rector --dev

Setup rector.php:

<?php

use Symplify\ConfigTransformer\FormatSwitcher\ValueObject\Format;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator\ContainerConfigurator;
use Rector\Symfony\Rector\Class_\ChangeFileLoaderInExtensionAndKernelRector;

return function (ContainerConfigurator $containerConfigurator): void {
    $services = $containerConfigurator->services();
    $services->set(ChangeFileLoaderInExtensionAndKernelRector::class)
        ->call('configure', [[
            ChangeFileLoaderInExtensionAndKernelRector::FROM => Format::YAML,
            ChangeFileLoaderInExtensionAndKernelRector::TO => Format::PHP,
        ]]);
};

And let Rector handle the boring work:

vendor/bin/rector p app src

And that's it!

One little tool for you, one big leap for a PHP programmer-kind.

Supported Features

• imports
• services
• parameters
• autodiscovery
• instance of
• extensions, e.g. framework, doctrine or twig
• routing

Let Us Know, Help You Grow

Is something broken? Have you found a space for improvement?

Create an issue and let us know. We'd love to hear it.

Happy coding!