Symfony2 - Is an AdminBundle actually the correct way to organise the app?

Question

I'm new to Symfony and am starting an app which includes an admin section. The general advice is pretty obvious - make an AdminBundle.

However, is that really the best practice? The Symfony documentation is saying that a bundle is intended to be a 'plugin' that can be distributed as is, and will work in another app. Doesn't the admin section need to be aware of all the models and things for the main app though? It's an admin section created to administer changes specifically to my app, so how would it be distributable or self-contained?

I feel like I'm missing something because if all the advice is to make an AdminBundle then I obviously don't understand something or haven't delved far enough into Symfony yet.

I'm just looking to get my app started with the correct structure going forward.

FYI, I created a project with the default AppBundle as well. I was just planning to make everything in there, but that doesn't seem right either as it will be harder to organise all the admin stuff separately.

Answer 1

I think it depeneds on tour needs and size of your project. Creating a special bundle to put there logic for of admin panel is a good practice. But if you have a small application with just couple of entities it's not necessary to create AdminBundle.

Symfony provides you any way you prefer to do what you need. You can create bundle or put all the admin panel business logic into special directory inside your main bundle controller directory or put all code into the same controllers and manage permissions to admin actions by setting up firewall.

I would suggest to use AdminBundle. It lets you keep your code cleaner: a client logic in one bundle, an admin logic is in another.

Bundle description taken from symfony official documentation isn't saying any opposite things. Because if you want you can use your AdminBundle in another app. Bundle is a way to keep different kind of business logic separated of each other.