Tuesday 16 July 2019

4 Major Steps to Deploy a Symphony Application

PHP is known as one of the most useful companions of the developers. With this scripting language,
various complex web applications and websites can easily be designed. As PHP is the most-used and
preferred programming language, it offers a variety of frameworks such as Zend, Symfony, and
CakePHP to the developers to build complex applications in a hassle-free way.

Symphony is the most popular framework among PHP programmers and consumers for developing
high-end and complex websites. It is a PHP5 framework coupled with a huge configuration that helps
programmers with an extensive level of code generation. 

In case you are planning to plan, code, build, and deploy an application using Symphony,
it is advisable to hire Symphony developers to get the best results. 

If you’ve already developed an application using Symphony but finding difficulties in its deployment?

You need to understand the basics for the easy deployment of the application build using PHP.
Let’s start. 

Symfony Deployment Basics

Steps taken to deploy a Symphony application are as follows:

1. Upload the code to the production server

2. Install your vendor dependencies (use a composer for this step and make sure to install before
uploading)

3. Run database migrations or similar tasks to update the changed data structures, if any

4. Clear your cache (optional)

A deployment may also include other tasks as well such as:

1. Creating a temporary staging area to build an updated “offline” setup

2. Tagging a version of your code as a release in your source code repository

3. Run tests to ensure server or code stability

4. Remove unnecessary files from the public/ directory in order to keep your production environment
cleaner

5. Clear external cache systems like Redis and Memcached

How to Deploy a Symfony Application Quickly

Although there are several ways following which you can deploy a Symphony application,
start with some of the basic deployment strategies. 

Step 1: Basic File Transfer

The first and the foremost step that you need to take in order to deploy your application using
Symphony is that copy the files manually through FTP/SCP. You might find difficulties in manually
transferring the data as you lack control over the system.

Step 2: Using Source Control

When you are using source control, for instance, SVN or Git, you can sort out things easily by making
a copy of your repository during live installations. Once you are all set to upgrade, fetch the latest
updates from your source control system. In case you’re using Git, you need to create tags for
every release and check appropriate tags on deployment. This way, you can easily update your files.

Step 3: Using Platforms as a Service

The best and the quickest way to deploy your Symphony application is to use Platform as a Service
(PaaS). You can find several PaaS such as:

Azure

Symfony Cloud

fortrabbit

Heroku

Platform.sh

Clever Cloud

Step 4: Using Build Scripts and Related Tools

You can also make use of tools that are specifically tailored and can help you further with the app
development and deployment process.

Deployer
Alternate native PHP rewrite of Capistrano, for Symphony app deployment.

Ansistrano
Allows you to configure a powerful deploy via YAML files.

EasyDeployBundle
A Symfony bundle for adding deploy tools to your application.

Fabric
A python-based library to provide a basic suite of operations for the easy execution of uploading/down
loading files and local or remote shell commands.

Start Deploying!
Now that you understand the basic concept and the steps taken to deploy an application, you can
start with your deployment process. In case, you have doubts and not sure whether you’ll be able to
execute the deployment, it is recommendable to hire offshore Symfony development company Us for
a hassle-free process.