You can automate it with help of this simple task:

class buildSlugTask extends sfBaseTask
{
  protected function configure()
  {
    $this->addArguments(array(
      new sfCommandArgument('model', sfCommandArgument::REQUIRED, 'Model'),
      new sfCommandArgument('field', sfCommandArgument::REQUIRED, 'Slug source field'),
    ));
 
    $this->addOptions(array(
      new sfCommandOption('application', null, sfCommandOption::PARAMETER_REQUIRED, 'The application name'),
      new sfCommandOption('env', null, sfCommandOption::PARAMETER_REQUIRED, 'The environment', 'dev'),
      new sfCommandOption('connection', null, sfCommandOption::PARAMETER_REQUIRED, 'The connection name', 'doctrine'),
    ));
 
    $this->namespace        = 'oxt';
    $this->name             = 'buildSlug';
    $this->briefDescription = 'Rebuild empty slug';
    $this->detailedDescription = <<<EOF
The [buildSlug|INFO] task rebuilds empty slugs.
Call it with:
 
  [php symfony buildSlug|INFO]
EOF;
  }
 
  protected function execute($arguments = array(), $options = array())
  {
    // initialize the database connection
    $databaseManager = new sfDatabaseManager($this->configuration);
    $connection = $databaseManager->getDatabase($options['connection'])->getConnection();
 
    $items = Doctrine::getTable($arguments['model'])
      ->createQuery('m')
      ->where('m.slug IS NULL')
      ->execute();
    foreach ($items as $item)
    {
      //cheat doctrine to re-save our model
      $field_value = $item->get($arguments['field']);
      $item->set($arguments['field'], '');
      $item->set($arguments['field'], $field_value);
      $item->save();
    }
  }
}

Call it with model name and slug field name. If you have slug built from several fields you can pass any of them.
E.g.:

./symfony oxt:buildSlug Record title

However what we want is to have background spell checking when we type text. Just like in regular word processor. The idea is simple – trigger spell check each time we type something. There’s a problem if we’ll trigger it after each letter – spell check uses Ajax request to server script, it may be very slow. We’ll solve it by triggering spell checking within 3-seconds delay after user has stopped typing.

Here’s the code:

tinyMCE.init({
        //...
	//regular initialization here
	//...
	plugins : "spellchecker", 
	theme_advanced_buttons1 : "spellchecker",
	spellchecker_languages : "English=en", 
	setup: mceSpellCheckRuntimeHandler
  });

And setup function:

mceSpellCheckRuntimeHandler = function(ed) {
  ed.addCommand('mceSpellCheckRuntime', function() {
    t = ed.plugins.spellchecker;
    if (t.mceSpellCheckRuntimeTimer) {
      window.clearTimeout(t.mceSpellCheckRuntimeTimer);
    }
    t.mceSpellCheckRuntimeTimer = window.setTimeout(function() {
      t._done();
      t._sendRPC('checkWords', [t.selectedLang, t._getWords()], function(r) {
        if (r.length > 0) {
          t.active = 1;
          t._markWords(r);
          ed.nodeChanged();
        }
      });
     }, 3000); //3 seconds
  });
  ed.onKeyUp.add(function(ed, e) {
    ed.execCommand('mceSpellCheckRuntime');
  });
};

The code is not ideal, but it works. Feel free to improve it for your needs.
Update. There may be an issue with focus. For example when cursor leaves tinymce it may return back to the editor. Ask me if you have this problem.

1. Enable paste plugin.
2. Add handler for parsing inserted text

So your TinyMCE code will look like:

  tinyMCE.init({
        ...
      	plugins: "paste",
      	paste_auto_cleanup_on_paste : true,
      	paste_postprocess : function(pl, o) {
            // remove extra line breaks
            o.node.innerHTML = o.node.innerHTML.replace(/<p.*>\s*(<br>|&nbsp;)\s*<\/p>/ig, "");
        }
  });

See more info on the official wiki

Artist:
  actAs:
    Sluggable:
      fields: [name]
      builder: [oxtSluggableTranslit, urlize]

The easiest way I found to transliterate non-ASCII text is to use PECL translit package. For Debian-based systems you can install it with dh-make-php.
Here’s the code:

class oxtSluggableTranslit
{
  /**
   * Convert any passed string to a url friendly string. Converts 'My first blog post' to 'my-first-blog-post'
   *
   * @param  string $text  Text to urlize
   * @return string $text  Urlized text
   */
  static public function urlize($text)
  {
    return Doctrine_Inflector::urlize(transliterate($text, array('cyrillic_transliterate', 'remove_punctuation'), 'utf-8', 'utf-8'));
  }
}

You can view all available transliterate filters by running

php -r 'print_r(transliterate_filters_get());'

Propel::disableInstancePooling();

Propel by default caches in memory all fetched database objects. That means that for scripts with extensive db usage or long running time you may hit php memory_limit sooner or later.
Starting with propel 1.3 shipped with symfony 1.3 and 1.4 which are about to be released you’ll be able to disable instance pooling in database yaml config.

To hide it for newly opened terminal windows by default change this flag in gnome config:
/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/default_show_menubar to false.

gconftool --type boolean --set /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/default_show_menubar false

It may be caused by wrong result from mime_content_type() function. To check if it’s your case create simple php script with just one line:

echo mime_content_type('path_to_your_png_image');

If it will give you text/plain then you have three options:

1. Upgrade your PHP to 5.3.0, though I doubt it’s available for most *nix distributions at this time.
2. Install PECL package Fileinfo.
3. The easiest, modify form class.

In first two options sfValidatorFile will use finfo_open function prior to mime_content_type and it should give correct results for PNG image. However, upgrading PHP or installing PECL package isn’t always possible.

The simplest way to fix this bug is to apply small modifications to your form class, just reorder mime type guessers:

public function configure()
{
  $this->validatorSchema['image'] = new sfValidatorFile(array(
      'required'	=> false,
      'path'       => sfConfig::get('sf_upload_dir') . '/directory',
      'mime_types' => 'web_images'
    ));
  $this->validatorSchema['image']->setOption('mime_type_guessers', array(
    array($this->validatorSchema['image'], 'guessFromFileinfo'),
    array($this->validatorSchema['image'], 'guessFromFileBinary'),
    array($this->validatorSchema['image'], 'guessFromMimeContentType')
  ));
}

In this case validator will first try fileinfo (which should be available since PHP 5.3.0), then 'file -bi' which should work correctly on *nix platform and only if both failed it will use mime_content_type

In this post I’ll describe what to do if your phing task requires user input. The solution is simple – ask for user property in ant and pass it back to phing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="project_name">
	<property name="phing.command" value="phing" />
	<target name="task_name" description="Task description">
		<input message="Input property"
			addproperty="property_name" />
		<exec dir="" executable="${phing.command}">
			<arg line="-Dphing_task_property=${property_name}" />
			<arg line="phing_task_name" />
		</exec>
	</target>
</project>

You also need to tell phing not to wait for user input if we’ve passed property via command line. For phing task propertyPrompt use attribute useExistingValue="true".

If your phing property has default value you need to specify this default value in ant input task also.

function yourmodule_menu() {
  $items['http://some.url'] = array(
    'tab_root'	=> 'user',
    'tab_parent'	=> 'user',
    'title' => 'External URL',
    'page callback' => 'user_page',
    'access callback' => 'user_is_anonymous',
    'type' => MENU_LOCAL_TASK,
    'weight'	=> 5
  );
 
  return $items;
}

Change ‘access callback’ to whatever function (or constant) you want, but don’t forget to set ‘page callback’. It is being checked when building menu structure even if we don’t have any page callback actually.

Sometimes it is not enough. I needed two localized version of website but with completely different content – everything including users, admin and super admin. Both version were supposed to run under the same domain and to be distinguished just by locale part in the url. I was too lazy and didn’t want to copy applications or projects (moreover, it is a problem in the future, you’ll have to modify each copy). So, I decided to use different databases with exact schema for different cultures.

Here’s guide how to implement this.

First of all, I need to extract locale parameter from the url. That is easy, you’ll find it in the symfony docs.
Routes config (routing.yml):

action:
  url:   /:locale/:module/:action/*
  requirements: {locale: nl|be}

I needed only NL and BE locales.

Then, you need to setup two databases. I was using symfony 1.1 with doctrine, but it should be possible for 1.2 also and propel or whatever ORM you are convenient with. Doctrine is able to work with multiple connections. However, I don’t need multiple connections. I need them both defined but I need only one current connection for every request. So I’m defining two connections but not specifying any binding to connection in model schema.
Databases config (databases.yml):

all:
  belgium:
    class:          sfDoctrineDatabase
    param:
      dsn:          mysql://user_be:pass_be@host_be/db_be
  primary:
    class:          sfDoctrineDatabase
    param:
      dsn:          mysql://user_nl:pass_nl@host_nl/db_nl

If you check your application at this moment it will use connection last defined.

So, now I only need to switch between these connections. I can do it with filters.
filters.yml:

rendering: ~
security:  ~
l10n:
  class: l10nFilter
cache:     ~
common:    ~
execution: ~

And the filter itself:

class l10nFilter extends sfFilter 
{
  public function execute($filterChain) 
  {
    if ($this->isFirstCall())
    {
      $locale = $this->getContext()->getRequest()->getParameter('locale');
      //sanitize locale
      $this->getContext()->getUser()->setAttribute('locale', $locale);
      $connection = ($locale == 'be') ? 'belgium' : 'primary';
      Doctrine_Manager::getInstance()->setCurrentConnection($connection);
    }
 
    $filterChain->execute();
  }
}

That’s it.

The small issue is that if you are going to use symfony db tasks (e.g. migrations or data population) you’ll need to set additional environments:
databases.yml:

prod_be:
  primary:
    class:          sfDoctrineDatabase
    param:
      dsn:          mysql://user_be:pass_be@host_be/db_be
prod_nl:
  primary:
    class:          sfDoctrineDatabase
    param:
      dsn:          mysql://user_nl:pass_nl@host_nl/db_nl

And call your tasks twice for each pseudo-environment by adding –env=prod_be or –env=prod_nl.