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

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.

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

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.

Here’s basic idea how to do it. In my example I have Work entity which has foreign key to Category entity. I have list of works filterable by category id.
To populate category id on work creation form you need to override generated action:

class worksActions extends autoworksActions
{
  public function executeEdit()
  {
  	parent::executeEdit();
  	if ($this->getRequestParameter('action') == 'create')
  	{
  		$filters = $this->getUser()->getAttributeHolder()->getAll('sf_admin/work/filters');
  		if (isset($filters['category_id']))
  			$this->work->setCategoryId($filters['category_id']);
  	}
  }
}

Look into admin generated actions if you want to more clearly understand why we need such code. It is located at cache/admin/dev/modules/autoWorks/actions/actions.class.php

I found some solution but I didn’t like it. I wanted to use PoEdit tool to have possibility for automated translation, syncing with sources and easy interface. So I wrote modified task which looks for all validation configs and creates fake php files with messages, which can be parsed by xgettext.

Usage is simple, just copy attached file to symfony/data/tasks in your PEAR directory and run symfony i18n-fake-php app_name. PHP files will be created in validate/ directories. After that you can use xgettext.

sfpakei18nvalidatorsphp.gz

However it is using files comparison by size and modification date, default for rsync utility. It isn’t in symfony documentation, but you can easily change rsync parameters to whatever.

Default parameters symfony uses are -azC --exclude-from=config/rsync_exclude.txt --force --delete. To use checksum comparison add the line to [production] in properties.ini:

parameters="-azC --exclude-from=config/rsync_exclude.txt --force --delete --checksum"