Symfony2 Jobeet Day 6: More with the Model

Categories on the Homepage

According to the second day’s requirements we need to have jobs sorted by categories. Until now, we have not taken the job category into account. From the requirements, the homepage must display jobs by category. First, we need to get all categories with at least one active job.

Create a repository class for the Category entity like we did for Job:

IbwJobeetBundleEntityCategory:
    type: entity
    repositoryClass: IbwJobeetBundleRepositoryCategoryRepository
    #...

Generate the repository class:

php app/console doctrine:generate:entities IbwJobeetBundle

Open the CategoryRepository class and add a getWithJobs() method:

namespace IbwJobeetBundleRepository;

use DoctrineORMEntityRepository;

/**
 * CategoryRepository
 *
 * This class was generated by the Doctrine ORM. Add your own custom
 * repository methods below.
 */
class CategoryRepository extends EntityRepository
{
    public function getWithJobs()
    {
        $query = $this->getEntityManager()->createQuery(
            'SELECT c FROM IbwJobeetBundle:Category c LEFT JOIN c.jobs j WHERE j.expires_at > :date'
        )->setParameter('date', date('Y-m-d H:i:s', time()));

        return $query->getResult();
    }   
}

Change the index action accordingly:

// ...

    public function indexAction()
    {
        $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

        $categories = $em->getRepository('IbwJobeetBundle:Category')->getWithJobs();

        foreach($categories as $category) {
            $category->setActiveJobs($em->getRepository('IbwJobeetBundle:Job')->getActiveJobs($category->getId()));
        }

        return $this->render('IbwJobeetBundle:Job:index.html.twig', array(
            'categories' => $categories
        ));
    }

// ...

For this to work, we have to add a new property to our Category class, the active_jobs:

class Category
{
    // ...

    private $active_jobs;

    // ...

    public function setActiveJobs($jobs)
    {
        $this->active_jobs = $jobs;
    }

    public function getActiveJobs()
    {
        return $this->active_jobs;
    }
}

In the template, we need to iterate through all categories and display the active jobs:

<!-- ... -->
{% block content %}
    <div id="jobs">
        {% for category in categories %}
            <div>
                <div class="category">
                    <div class="feed">
                        <a href="">Feed</a>
                    </div>
                    <h1>{{ category.name }}</h1>
                </div>
                <table class="jobs">
                    {% for entity in category.activejobs %}
                        <tr class="{{ cycle(['even', 'odd'], loop.index) }}">
                            <td class="location">{{ entity.location }}</td>
                            <td class="position">
                                <a href="{{ path('ibw_job_show', { 'id': entity.id, 'company': entity.companyslug, 'location': entity.locationslug, 'position': entity.positionslug }) }}">
                                    {{ entity.position }}
                                </a>
                            </td>
                             <td class="company">{{ entity.company }}</td>
                        </tr>
                    {% endfor %}
                </table>
            </div>
        {% endfor %}
    </div>
{% endblock %}

Limit the results

There is still one requirement to implement for the homepage job list: we have to limit the job list to 10 items. That’s simple enough to add the $max parameter to the JobRepository::getActiveJobs() method:

    public function getActiveJobs($category_id = null, $max = null)
    {
        $qb = $this->createQueryBuilder('j')
            ->where('j.expires_at > :date')
            ->setParameter('date', date('Y-m-d H:i:s', time()))
            ->orderBy('j.expires_at', 'DESC');

        if($max) {
            $qb->setMaxResults($max);
        }

        if($category_id) {
            $qb->andWhere('j.category = :category_id')
                ->setParameter('category_id', $category_id);
        }

        $query = $qb->getQuery();

        return $query->getResult();
    }

Change the call to getActiveJobs() to include the $max parameter:

// ...

    public function indexAction()
    {
        $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

        $categories = $em->getRepository('IbwJobeetBundle:Category')->getWithJobs();

        foreach($categories as $category)
        {
            $category->setActiveJobs($em->getRepository('IbwJobeetBundle:Job')->getActiveJobs($category->getId(), 10));
        }

        return $this->render('IbwJobeetBundle:Job:index.html.twig', array(
            'categories' => $categories
        ));
    }

// ...

Custom Configuration

In the JobController, indexAction method, we have hardcoded the number of max jobs returned for a category. It would have been better to make the 10 limit configurable. In Symfony, you can define custom parameters for your application in the app/config/config.yml file, under the parameters key (if the parameters key doesn’t exist, create it):

# ...

parameters:
    max_jobs_on_homepage: 10

This can now be accessed from a controller:

// ...

    public function indexAction()
    {
        $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

        $categories = $em->getRepository('IbwJobeetBundle:Category')->getWithJobs();

        foreach($categories as $category) {
            $category->setActiveJobs($em->getRepository('IbwJobeetBundle:Job')->getActiveJobs($category->getId(), $this->container->getParameter('max_jobs_on_homepage')));
        }

        return $this->render('IbwJobeetBundle:Job:index.html.twig', array(
            'categories' => $categories
        ));
    }

// ...

Dinamic Fixtures

For now, you won’t see any difference because we have a very small amount of jobs in our database. We need to add a bunch of jobs to the fixture. So, you can copy and paste an existing job ten or twenty times by hand… but there’s a better way. Duplication is bad, even in fixture files:

// ...

public function load(ObjectManager $em)
{
    // ...

    for($i = 100; $i <= 130; $i++)
    {
        $job = new Job();
        $job->setCategory($em->merge($this->getReference('category-programming')));
        $job->setType('full-time');
        $job->setCompany('Company '.$i);
        $job->setPosition('Web Developer');
        $job->setLocation('Paris, France');
        $job->setDescription('Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.');
        $job->setHowToApply('Send your resume to lorem.ipsum [at] dolor.sit');
        $job->setIsPublic(true);
        $job->setIsActivated(true);
        $job->setToken('job_'.$i);
        $job->setEmail('job@example.com');

        $em->persist($job);
    }

    // ... 
    $em->flush();
}

// ...

You can now reload the fixtures with the doctrine:fixtures:load task and see if only 10 jobs are displayed on the homepage for the Programming category:

Secure the Job Page

When a job expires, even if you know the URL, it must not be possible to access it anymore. Try the URL for the expired job (replace the id with the actual id in your database – SELECT id, token FROM job WHERE expires_at < NOW()):

Instead of displaying the job, we need to forward the user to a 404 page. For this we will create a new function in the JobRepository:

// ...

    public function getActiveJob($id)
    {
        $query = $this->createQueryBuilder('j')
            ->where('j.id = :id')
            ->setParameter('id', $id)
            ->andWhere('j.expires_at > :date')
            ->setParameter('date', date('Y-m-d H:i:s', time()))
            ->setMaxResults(1)
            ->getQuery();

        try {
            $job = $query->getSingleResult();
        } catch (DoctrineOrmNoResultException $e) {
            $job = null;
        }

        return $job;
    }

The getSingleResult() method throws a DoctrineORMNoResultException exception if no results are returned and a DoctrineORMNonUniqueResultException if more than one result is returned. If you use this method, you may need to wrap it in a try-catch blockand ensure that only one result is returned.

Now change the showAction() from the JobController to use the new repository method:

// ...

$entity = $em->getRepository('IbwJobeetBundle:Job')->getActiveJob($id);

// ...

Now, if you try to get an expired job, you will be forwarded to a 404 page:

That’s all for today! We will see you again tomorrow, when we’ll be playing with the category page.