Getting started with SonataAdminBundle ====================================== If you followed the installation instructions, SonataAdminBundle should be installed but inaccessible. You first need to configure it for your models before you can start using it. Here is a quick checklist of what is needed to quickly setup SonataAdminBundle and create your first admin interface for the models of your application: * Step 1: Define SonataAdminBundle routes * Step 2: Create an Admin class * Step 3: Create an Admin service * Step 4: Configuration Step 1: Define SonataAdminBundle routes --------------------------------------- To be able to access SonataAdminBundle's pages, you need to add its routes to your application's routing file: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # app/config/routing.yml admin: resource: '@SonataAdminBundle/Resources/config/routing/sonata_admin.xml' prefix: /admin _sonata_admin: resource: . type: sonata_admin prefix: /admin .. note:: If you're using XML or PHP to specify your application's configuration, the above routing configuration must be placed in routing.xml or routing.php according to your format (i.e. XML or PHP). .. note:: For those curious about the ``resource: .`` setting: it is unusual syntax but used because Symfony requires a resource to be defined (which points to a real file). Once this validation passes Sonata's ``AdminPoolLoader`` is in charge of processing this route and it simply ignores the resource setting. At this point you can already access the (empty) admin dashboard by visiting the url: ``http://yoursite.local/admin/dashboard``. Step 2: Create an Admin class ----------------------------- SonataAdminBundle helps you manage your data using a graphic interface that will let you create, update or search your model's instances. Those actions need to be configured, which is done using an Admin class. An Admin class represents the mapping of your model to each administration action. In it, you decide which fields to show on a listing, which to use as filters or what to show on an creation/edition form. The easiest way to create an Admin class for your model is to extend the ``Sonata\AdminBundle\Admin\Admin`` class. Suppose your AcmeDemoBundle has a Post entity. This is how a basic Admin class for it could look like: .. code-block:: php add('title', 'text', array('label' => 'Post Title')) ->add('author', 'entity', array('class' => 'Acme\DemoBundle\Entity\User')) ->add('body') //if no type is specified, SonataAdminBundle tries to guess it ; } // Fields to be shown on filter forms protected function configureDatagridFilters(DatagridMapper $datagridMapper) { $datagridMapper ->add('title') ->add('author') ; } // Fields to be shown on lists protected function configureListFields(ListMapper $listMapper) { $listMapper ->addIdentifier('title') ->add('slug') ->add('author') ; } } Implementing these three functions is the first step to creating an Admin class. Other options are available, that will let you further customize the way your model is shown and handled. Those will be covered in more advanced chapters of this manual. Step 3: Create an Admin service ------------------------------- Now that you have created your Admin class, you need to create a service for it. This service needs to have the ``sonata.admin`` tag, which is your way of letting SonataAdminBundle know that this particular service represents an Admin class: Create either a new ``admin.xml`` or ``admin.yml`` file inside the ``Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/config/`` folder: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: xml Acme\DemoBundle\Entity\Post AcmeDemoBundle .. code-block:: yaml # Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/config/admin.yml services: sonata.admin.post: class: Acme\DemoBundle\Admin\PostAdmin tags: - { name: sonata.admin, manager_type: orm, group: "Content", label: "Post" } arguments: - ~ - Acme\DemoBundle\Entity\Post - ~ calls: - [ setTranslationDomain, [AcmeDemoBundle]] The basic configuration of an Admin service is quite simple. It creates a service instance based on the class you specified before, and accepts three arguments: 1. The Admin service's code (defaults to the service's name) 2. The model which this Admin class maps (required) 3. The controller that will handle the administration actions (defaults to SonataAdminBundle:CRUDController) Usually you just need to specify the second argument, as the first and third's default values will work for most scenarios. The ``setTranslationDomain`` call lets you choose which translation domain to use when translating labels on the admin pages. More info on the `symfony translations page`_. Now that you have a configuration file with you admin service, you just need to tell Symfony2 to load it. There are two ways to do so: 1 - Importing it in the main config.yml ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Include your new configuration file in the main config.yml (make sure that you use the correct file extension): .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # app/config/config.yml imports: - { resource: @AcmeDemoBundle/Resources/config/admin.xml } 2 - Have your bundle load it ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You can also have your bundle load the admin configuration file. Inside your bundle's extension file, using the ``load()`` method as described in the `symfony cookbook`_. .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php # Acme/DemoBundle/DependencyInjection/AcmeDemoBundleExtension.php for XML configurations use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader; use Symfony\Component\Config\FileLocator; public function load(array $configs, ContainerBuilder $container) { // ... $loader = new Loader\XmlFileLoader($container, new FileLocator(__DIR__.'/../Resources/config')); $loader->load('admin.xml'); } .. code-block:: php # Acme/DemoBundle/DependencyInjection/AcmeDemoBundleExtension.php for YAML configurations use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader; use Symfony\Component\Config\FileLocator; public function load(array $configs, ContainerBuilder $container) { // ... $loader = new Loader\YamlFileLoader($container, new FileLocator(__DIR__.'/../Resources/config')); $loader->load('admin.yml'); } Step 4: Configuration --------------------- At this point you have basic administration actions for your model. If you visit ``http://yoursite.local/admin/dashboard`` again, you should now see a panel with your model mapped. You can start creating, listing, editing and deleting instances. You probably want to put your own project's name and logo on the top bar. Put your logo file here ``src/Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/public/img/fancy_acme_logo.png`` Install your assets: .. code-block:: sh $ php app/console assets:install Now you can change your project's main config.yml file: .. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # app/config/config.yml sonata_admin: title: Acme Demo Bundle title_logo: bundles/acmedemo/img/fancy_acme_logo.png Next steps - Security --------------------- As you probably noticed, you were able to access your dashboard and data by just typing in the URL. By default, the SonataAdminBundle does not come with any user management for ultimate flexibility. However, it is most likely that your application requires such feature. The Sonata Project includes a ``SonataUserBundle`` which integrates the very popular ``FOSUserBundle``. Please refer to the :doc:`security` section of this documentation for more information. Congratulations! You are ready to start using SonataAdminBundle. You can now map additional models or explore advanced functionalities. The following sections will each address a specific section or functionality of the bundle, giving deeper details on what can be configured and achieved with SonataAdminBundle. .. _`symfony cookbook`: http://symfony.com/doc/master/cookbook/bundles/extension.html#using-the-load-method .. _`symfony translations page`: http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/translation.html#using-message-domains