How to get Symfony session variable in model?

Question

How can I pass session variable in symfony model without using sfContext::getInstance()?

Answer 1

The recommended way is called dependency injection, and works like this: you create a setUser() method in your model file, that saves the given parameter to a private property:

class Foo {
  private $_user;

  public function setUser(myUser $user) {
    $this->_user = $user;
  }

  // ... later:

  public function save(Doctrine_Connection $conn = null) {
    // use $this->_user to whatever you need
  }
}

This looks clumsy, because it is. But without you answering the question what are you trying to do? I cannot give an alternative.

Recommended articles:

• What is Dependency Injection? - a post series on Fabien Potencier's blog
• Dependency Injection - the design patter in detail on wikipedia

Answer 2

Session variables should be stored as user's attributes.

// in an action: 
$this->getUser()->setAttribute('current_order_id', $order_id);

See how to get it back.

// later on, in another action, you can get it as:
$order_id = $this->getUser()->getAttribute('current_order_id', false);
if($order_id!==false)
{
    // save to DB
} else {
    $this->getUser()->setFlash('error', 'Please selected an order before you can do stuff.');
    // redirect and warn the user to selected an order
    $this->redirect('orders');
}