• Version: v2.0.2
• Date: October 14 2018
• Release notes
• GitHub repository

The Symphony Shell extension provides access to the Symphony core from the command line.

Developers can include commands in their extensions, allowing for operations not suited to web servers. The command API gives easy access to the Symphony core framework, including database, config, authentication and logs.

This is an extension for Symphony CMS. Add it to the /extensions folder of your Symphony CMS installation, then enable it though the interface.

This extension requires the Shell Arguments (symfony/http-foundation) library to be installed via Composer. Either require it in your main composer.json file, or run composer install on the extension/shell directory.

"require": {
  "php": ">=5.6.6",
  "pointybeard/shell-args": "~1.0"
}

To simply accessing Symphony commands on the command line, we recommend you do the follow:

1. Make the bin/symphony script executable with chmod +x extensions/shell/bin/symphony
2. Add extensions/shell/bin/symphony to your PATH or create a symbolic link in a location that resides in the PATH e.g. /usr/local/sbin. This will allow you to call the Symphony command from anywhere.

From the shell, you can run the following command

php -f /path/to/extensions/shell/bin/symphony -- [args]

For usage information, use --usage. E.G.

php -f /path/to/extensions/shell/bin/symphony -- --usage

or, if you followed the "Optional Setup" above, just

symphony --usage

This remainder of this document assumes you have set up the extension using the "Optional Setup" steps above.

The Shell extension looks for commands in the bin/ folder of extensions you have installed, and also in workspace/bin/. You can see a list of commands by running symphony without any arguments. A list like this will be displayed:

    Below is a list of all available commands. (use --usage for details on
    executing individual commands):

       shell/hello
       shell/token

At any time you can use --usage, --help or -h to get help. If you have also specified a command (see below), you will get help for that particular command instead.

Use the -c or --command argument to run a particular command. The value provided is always [extension]/[command] or [workspace]/[command]. This extension comes with two commands out of the box: hello and token.

To run the hello command use the following:

symphony -c shell/hello

You should see output like this:

    Hello! Here are the arguments you passed me.
    0: 'c' => 'shell/hello'

Some commands may require you are authenticated before you use them. To do this, either provide the name of the user you want to authenticate as with -u <username> or the auth token of that user with -t <token>. When using -u, you will be prompted to enter your password.

To write a command, create a class that implements Symphony\Shell\Lib\Interfaces\Command and place it into workspace/bin/. Alternatively, put it into the bin/ folder of any Extension. You commands will be prefixed with either workspace (if it has been placed in workspace/bin/), or by the name of the extension.

Any command you write must have a namespace starting with Symphony\Shell\Command\ followed by the name of your extension (e.g. namespace Symphony\Shell\Command\MyExtension) or workspace (i.e. namespace Symphony\Shell\Command\Workspace).

When implementing Symphony\Shell\Lib\Interfaces\Command, you must include a usage and run method.

Here is an example of a very basic Command called test placed in workspace/bin/:

<?php
namespace Symphony\Shell\Command\Workspace;

use Symphony\Shell\Lib;

class Test implements Lib\Interfaces\Command
{

    public function usage()
    {
        return "    usage for 'workspace/test'

    Add usage information for this command." . PHP_EOL;
    }

    public function run()
    {
        Lib\Shell::message("Greetings. This is the test command!");
    }
}

From within the run() method, you have full access to the Symphony core framework. For example, to get the database object, use \Symphony::Database(). Anything you would normally do in an extension, you can do here (e.g. triggering delegates, accessing sections or fields).

You can secure your commands so that anyone using it must provide Symphony user credentials. To do this, instead of implementing Symphony\Shell\Lib\Interfaces\Command, extend Symphony\Shell\Lib\AuthenticatedCommand. When you command is run, Shell will notice and force the user to provide a authentication with -u or -t.

When extending AuthenticatedCommand, you must provide an authenticate() method in your command. The simplest way is to use the hasRequiresAuthenticationTrait trait. It includes a boilerplate authenticate() method and generally is more than adequate. It will check if the user is logged in, request username and password if they are not, and throw an AuthenticationRequiredException if login ultimately fails.

Here is the same 'test' command from above, but this time it requires authentication:

<?php
namespace Symphony\Shell\Command\Workspace;

use Symphony\Shell\Lib;

class Test extend Lib\AuthenticatedCommand
{
    use Lib\Traits\hasRequiresAuthenticationTrait;

    public function usage()
    {
        return "    usage for 'workspace/test'

    Add usage information for this command." . PHP_EOL;
    }

    public function run()
    {
        Lib\Shell::message("Greetings. This is the test command!");
    }
}

Note that if you follow the "Optional Steps" above, running symphony will always be in the context of that one particular installation.

If you run multiple sites across multiple installations of Symphony, remember that the Shell extension will work with only the installation of Symphony it itself was installed and enabled on.

A solution is to place the Shell extension folder outside of the Symphony CMS install, symlink the it into each extensions/ folder per install of Symphony, and provide the path to Symphony at run-time with $SYMPHONY_DOCROOT.

E.g.

One install of Symphony is called banana and another called apple. The same shell extension folder, which is in ~/source is symlink'd accordingly into the extensions folder.

    ## ln -s ~/source/shell /var/www/symphony-banana/extensions/
    SYMPHONY_DOCROOT=/var/www/symphony-banana symphony

    ## ln -s ~/source/shell /var/www/symphony-apple/extensions/
    SYMPHONY_DOCROOT=/var/www/symphony-apple symphony

Using SYMPHONY_DOCROOT like this gives the Shell extension context and will load up the correct install of Symphony at run-time.

If you believe you have found a bug, please report it using the GitHub issue tracker, or better yet, fork the library and submit a pull request.

We encourage you to contribute to this project. Please check out the Contributing documentation for guidelines about how to get involved.

"Shell Extension for Symphony CMS" is released under the MIT License.