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Customizing the Platform Application

Symfony offers easy-to-use options for overriding parts of third party bundles in an application. Since the OroPlatform Application consists of several well-structured bundles, you can customize almost every part of it as easily as you could in any other Symfony application.

Extending a Bundle

Some of the techniques described below require extending an existing bundle. Essentially, extending a bundle is nothing more than implementing the getParent() method in the bundle’s class. The getParent() method returns the name of the extended bundle:

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// src/Acme/DemoBundle/AcmeDemoBundle.php
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Bundle\Bundle;

class AcmeDemoBundle extends Bundle
{
    // ...

    public function getParent()
    {
        return 'OroDataGridBundle';
    }
}

See also

You can find more information on how to extend bundles in the cookbook.

Overriding Templates

There are two options for overriding the OroPlatform templates:

  1. Overriding one of the platform templates is as easy as adding a template at the same path under app/Resources/ as the template being overriden. For example, to override the Grid/widget/widget.html.twig template from the DataGridBundle, create a new template file located at app/Resources/OroDataGridBundle/views/Grid/widget/widget.html.twig.
  2. You can extend an existing bundle to override its templates. For example, if the AcmeDemoBundle extends the OroDataGridBundle, you can override the Grid/widget/widget.html.twig template by creating a template with the same name in the Resources/views/Grid/widget directory of the AcmeDemoBundle.

Both methods of overriding the templates have their advantages. Putting templates under the app/Resources directory ensures that they can’t be overriden by any bundle. For example, you usually store templates that are specific to a particular application under this path. Extending one of the Platform bundles is useful if you want to be able to re-use the overriden templates in several applications.

See also

The mechanism for overriding bundle templates is described in detail in the templating chapter in the Symfony documentation.

Twig Placeholders

The OroUIBundle extends Twig templates by allowing them to use so-called “placeholders”. Placeholders are defined in any bundle in the placeholders.yml file which is stored in the bundle’s Resources/config/oro directory. For example, the placeholders file of the OroDataGridBundle looks like this:

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# platform/src/Oro/Bundle/DataGridBundle/Resources/config/oro/placeholders.yml
placeholders:
    placeholders:
        scripts_before:
            items:
                template_datagrid_toolbar:
                    order: 20
                template_datagrid_toolbar_pagination:
                    order: 30
                template_datagrid_toolbar_pagination_input:
                    order: 40
                template_datagrid_toolbar_page_size:
                    order: 50
                template_datagrid_select_all_header_cell:
                    order: 50
                template_datagrid_action_header_cell:
                    order: 50

    items:
        template_datagrid_toolbar:
            template: OroDataGridBundle:js:toolbar.html.twig
        template_datagrid_toolbar_pagination:
            template: OroDataGridBundle:js:pagination.html.twig
        template_datagrid_toolbar_pagination_input:
            template: OroDataGridBundle:js:pagination-input.html.twig
        template_datagrid_toolbar_page_size:
            template: OroDataGridBundle:js:page-size.html.twig
        template_datagrid_select_all_header_cell:
            template: OroDataGridBundle:js:select-all-header-cell.html.twig
        template_datagrid_action_header_cell:
            template: OroDataGridBundle:js:action-header-cell.html.twig

A placeholder is rendered in a twig template using the placeholder tag:

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{% placeholder scripts_before %}

You can pass additional options to the placeholder using with:

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{% placeholder right_panel with {placement: 'right'} %}

Create Custom Translations

Translations are grouped by message domains. Thus, you can overwrite any translation as long as it is in the same message domain. When there are more than one translation, the order in which they are loaded is crucial. Therefore, make sure that your bundle containing the overriding translation files is loaded after the OroPlatform bundles in AppKernel. To change order in which bundles are loaded, you can use the priority option in the bundle configuration.

Tip

Translation files located in the app/Resources/translations directory always win over others as they are loaded last.

Crowdin Translations

OroPlatform supports using translations from Crowdin. You can then use the oro:translation:pack command with your authentication data to download and apply a translation pack:

$ php app/console oro:translation:pack -i <project-id> -k <api-key> --download <project>

See also

You can learn more about the Crowdin translation process in the community section.

Replacing a Service

You can replace any service defined by one of the OroPlatform bundles with your own implementation. All you have to do is fill the class parameter name for the service you want to replace with the name of your new service class. All parameters used to set the services’ class names are in the form of bundle_alias.service_name.class (for example, oro_datagrid.configuration.provider.class is the parameter holding the class name for the oro_datagrid.configuration.provider service):

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# app/config/parameters.yml
parameters:
    # ...
    oro_datagrid.configuration.provider.class: Acme\DataGridBundleBundle\Provider\ConfigurationProvider

Replacing Forms

Most forms from the OroPlatform bundles are registered as services. Hence, they can be replaced like any other service.

Adding custom Validation Constraints

Symfony doesn’t allow you to override validation constraints. Instead, all rules configured for a particular subject being validated are merged into one large validation metadata tree.

You can learn more about where and how you are able to use custom validation constraints from the cookbook:

Overriding a Controller

To override a controller of the OroPlatform bundle with your own implementation, you must first extend that bundle (read How to extend existing bundle for more information). Then, create a controller class with the same name as the parent bundle:

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// src/Acme/DataGridBundle/Controller/GridController;
namespace Acme\DataGridBundle\Controller;

use Oro\DataGridBundle\Controller\GridController as BaseController;

class GridController extends BaseController
{
    public function widgetAction($gridName)
    {
        // call the parent action first or completely reimplement
        // the action
    }
}

Tip

You should extend the controller class from the parent bundle so that you have to implement the customized action instead of re-implementing all other actions. Don’t forget to register your controller action either with annotation or using configuration from the routing.yml file.

Customizing the Database Schema

OroPlatform supports two types of entities: regular entities that are mapped via Doctrine metadata and OroPlatform specific entities that exist in the database and which are then generated into the application’s cache directory.

OroPlatform Entities

The OroPlatform Application ships with a set of predefined entities. Their basic configuration is stored in the oro_entity_config table. Its structure looks essentially like this:

+------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type         | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id         | int(11)      | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| class_name | varchar(255) | NO   | UNI | NULL    |                |
| created    | datetime     | NO   |     | NULL    |                |
| updated    | datetime     | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| mode       | varchar(8)   | NO   |     | NULL    |                |
| data       | longtext     | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

You can add new fields to already existing entities and also add your own custom entities. To do this, all you have to do is to create a Migration that performs the steps need to customize the entity schema.

Caution

Migrations loaded by the OroMigrationBundle are grouped into versions on a per bundle basis. This means that all migrations stored in a migration version directory are executed just once. The version number of the last executed migration is then stored in the database. So, if you want to create another custom entity, you have to create a new subdirectory called v1_1, then v1_2, and so on.

You can skip any version number (for example you can have a v1_1 and a v1_3 directory). It is just important that new migrations are placed in directory with higher version numbers (as determined by PHP’s version_compare function.

Adding Fields to an Existing Entity

To add a field to an existing entity, use the addColumn() method. It’s important that you pass the special oro_options key to the options argument which ensures that the column is recognized properly.

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// src/Acme/DemoBundle/MigrationBundle/Schema/v1_0/AddCustomFieldMigration.php
namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Migrations\Schema;

use Doctrine\DBAL\Schema\Schema;
use Oro\Bundle\EntityExtendBundle\EntityConfig\ExtendScope;
use Oro\Bundle\MigrationBundle\Migration\Migration;
use Oro\Bundle\MigrationBundle\Migration\QueryBag;

class AddCustomFieldMigration implements Migration
{
    public function up(Schema $schema, QueryBag $queries)
    {
        $table = $schema->getTable('oro_user');
        $table->addColumn(
            'custom_field',
            'text',
            array('oro_options' => array(
                'extend' => array('is_extend' => true, 'owner' => ExtendScope::OWNER_CUSTOM),
                'datagrid' => array('is_visible' => true),
                'merge' => array('display' => true),
            ))
        );
    }
}

Apply these changes by running the oro:migration:load command:

$ php app/console oro:migration:load

This command updates the oro_entity_config and oro_user tables. Additionally, each time the cache is generated, corresponding entity and mapping files are created in the app/cache:

$ ls -l app/cache/<env>/oro_entities/Extend/Entity
total 28
-rw-rw-r--+ 1 user user  245 Jun  6 20:40 ExtendUser.orm.yml
-rw-rw-r--+ 1 user user  347 Jun  6 20:40 ExtendUser.php
-rw-rw-r--+ 1 user user   65 Jun  6 20:40 alias.yml

Creating Custom Entities

Thanks to the EntityExtendBundle, you can create your own entities which are then available in the Section/Entities section of the Platform Application. To create your own entities, simply create a migration class that implements the ExtendExtensionAwareInterface and the Migration interfaces:

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// src/Acme/DemoBundle/Migrations/Schema/v1_0/CreateCustomEntityMigration.php
namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Migrations\Schema\v1_0;

use Doctrine\DBAL\Schema\Schema;
use Oro\Bundle\EntityExtendBundle\Migration\Extension\ExtendExtension;
use Oro\Bundle\EntityExtendBundle\Migration\Extension\ExtendExtensionAwareInterface;
use Oro\Bundle\MigrationBundle\Migration\Migration;
use Oro\Bundle\MigrationBundle\Migration\QueryBag;

class CreateCustomEntityMigration implements ExtendExtensionAwareInterface, Migration
{
    private $extendExtension;

    public function setExtendExtension(ExtendExtension $extendExtension)
    {
        $this->extendExtension = $extendExtension;
    }

    public function up(Schema $schema, QueryBag $queries)
    {
        $table = $this->extendExtension->createCustomEntityTable($schema, 'CustomEntity');
        $table->addColumn('name', 'string');
        $this->extendExtension->addManyToOneRelation(
            $schema,
            $table,
            'user',
            'oro_user',
            'first_name'
        );
    }
}

This migration creates a new entity, Extend\Entity\CustomEntity. Its PHP class doesn’t reside in any bundle but only in the application cache. Also, a new table oro_ext_customentity will be created in your database which should look something like this:

mysql> DESCRIBE oro_ext_customentity;
+---------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field   | Type         | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+---------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id      | int(11)      | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| user_id | int(11)      | YES  | MUL | NULL    |                |
| name    | varchar(255) | NO   |     | NULL    |                |
+---------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

Furthermore, two new files are created in the entities cache directory:

$ ls -l app/cache/<env>/oro_entities/Extend/Entity
total 36
-rw-rw-r--+ 1 user user  202 Jun  6 20:49 CustomEntity.orm.yml
-rw-rw-r--+ 1 user user  488 Jun  6 20:49 CustomEntity.php
-rw-rw-r--+ 1 user user  245 Jun  6 20:49 ExtendUser.orm.yml
-rw-rw-r--+ 1 user user  347 Jun  6 20:49 ExtendUser.php
-rw-rw-r--+ 1 user user   65 Jun  6 20:49 alias.yml

Regular Entities

You can create regular Doctrine entities as you would in other Symfony applications. For example, have a look at the following entity:

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// src/Acme/DemoBundle/Entity/RegularEntity.php
namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

/**
* @ORM\Entity
*/
class RegularEntity
{
    /**
    * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
    * @ORM\Id
    * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
    */
    protected $id;

    /**
    * @ORM\Column(type="string")
    */
    protected $name;
}

To create a migration file for this entity, run the doctrine:schema:update command in the dev environment first:

$ php app/console doctrine:schema:update --force

This created a RegularEntity table in your database. You can now use the oro:migration:dump to dump the complete database schema:

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use Oro\Bundle\MigrationBundle\Migration\Migration;
use Oro\Bundle\MigrationBundle\Migration\QueryBag;

class AllMigration implements Migration
{
    /**
    * @inheritdoc
    */
    public function up(Schema $schema, QueryBag $queries)
    {
        /** Generate table RegularEntity **/
        $table = $schema->createTable('RegularEntity');
        $table->addColumn('id', 'integer', ['autoincrement' => true]);
        $table->addColumn('name', 'string', ['length' => 255]);
        $table->setPrimaryKey(['id']);
        /** End of generate table RegularEntity **/

        /** Generate table acl_classes **/
        $table = $schema->createTable('acl_classes');
        $table->addColumn('id', 'integer', ['unsigned' => true, 'autoincrement' => true]);
        $table->addColumn('class_type', 'string', ['length' => 200]);
        $table->setPrimaryKey(['id']);
        $table->addUniqueIndex(['class_type'], 'UNIQ_69DD750638A36066');
        /** End of generate table acl_classes **/

        // ...
    }
}

Search for the parts that are related to the RegularEntity table (the lines between its related Generate table and End of generate table comments) and copy them to a new migration file. After that, the new migration file should look like this:

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// src/Acme/DemoBundle/Migrations/Schema/CreateRegularEntityMigration.php;
namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Migrations\Schema\v1_0;

use Doctrine\DBAL\Schema\Schema;
use Oro\Bundle\MigrationBundle\Migration\Migration;
use Oro\Bundle\MigrationBundle\Migration\QueryBag;

class CreateRegularEntityMigration implements Migration
{
    public function up(Schema $schema, QueryBag $queries)
    {
        $table = $schema->createTable('RegularEntity');
        $table->addColumn('id', 'integer', ['autoincrement' => true]);
        $table->addColumn('name', 'string', ['length' => 255]);
        $table->setPrimaryKey(['id']);
    }
}

From now on, you can simply create the RegularEntity table by running the oro:migration:load command.

Caution

Remember that command doctrine:schema:update can only be executed for development or testing purposes. All real application database updates must be applied using migrations.

See also

Read more about Doctrine mappings in the Symfony Book and in the official Doctrine documentation.

Business Logic

Since OroPlatform entities are only created inside the application’s cache directory, you cannot add your business logic to these entity classes. To overcome this drawback, you can create a service that does all the necessary actions required by your business.

For example, imagine that the users of your application are accounted based on the number of months they used your service during the last year. The longer your user uses the service, the lower the fee they are charged per month:

Service used in monthsService fee per month
1 – 420 $
5 – 815 $
9 – 1210 $

The entity class for such a user may look like this:

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// src/Acme/DemoBundle/Entity/Account.php
namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Entity;

class Account
{
    private $monthsUsed;

    private $totalFee;

    public function setMonthsUsed($monthsUsed)
    {
        $this->monthUsed = $monthsUsed;
    }

    public function getMonthsUsed()
    {
        return $this->monthsUsed;
    }

    public function setTotalFee($totalFee)
    {
        $this->totalFee = $totalFee;
    }

    public function getTotalFee()
    {
        return $this->totalFee;
    }
}

You can then create a class which performs all of the calculations based on the rules above which should be registered as a service in your Symfony application:

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// src/Acme/DemoBundle/Accounting/TotalFeeCalculator.php
namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Accounting;

use Acme\DemoBundle\Entity\Account;

class TotalFeeCalculator
{
    public function calculateTotalFee(Account $account)
    {
        if ($account->getMonthsUsed() === 0) {
            $account->setTotalFee(0);
        } elseif ($account->getMonthsUsed() >= 1 && $account->getMonthsUsed() < 5) {
            $account->setTotalFee(20);
        } elseif ($account->getMonthsUsed() >= 5 && $account->getMonthsUsed() < 10) {
            $account->setTotalFee(15);
        } elseif ($account->getMonthsUsed() >= 10) {
            $account->setTotalFee(10);
        }
    }
}

This way, you can access your business logic rules simply by requesting the calculator service from the service container or inject it into your custom services like any other service.

Learn more

You can learn more about customizing a Symfony application in general from the Symfony documentation as well as customizing the OroPlatform Application:

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