I recently needed a few scripts that run as cronjobs. Symfony has something like the Console Component which gives the possibility to create command line interfaces for your code.

The people from KNPLabs created a ConsoleServiceProvider which Provides a Symfony\Component\Console based console for Silex. Registering this service provider is easy as registering any other service provider. First step is adding the knplabs/console-service-provider to the composer.json file and running composer update.

{
   "require": {
      ...
      "knplabs/console-service-provider": "dev-master"
   },
   "autoload": {
      "psr-0": {"": "src/"}
   }
}

Next we’ll register the service and set some options:

use Knp\Provider\ConsoleServiceProvider;

/**
* Console Service Provider
*
*/
$app->register(new ConsoleServiceProvider(), array(
	'console.name' => 'ConsoleApp',
	'console.version' => '1.0.0',
	'console.project_directory' => __DIR__ . '/..'
));

Next up we’ll have to create a command script which extends the Knp\Command\Command. You’ll have to implement two methods to configure and execute a command. The configure method just defines what kind of commands are available and what kind of options you can use.

protected function configure() {
   $this
      ->setName('import')
      ->setDescription('Import all data.')
      ->addArgument(
         'userId',
         InputArgument::OPTIONAL,
         'Import for a specific user'
      )
      ->addOption(
         'debug',
         null,
         InputOption::VALUE_NONE,
         'If set, the task will run in debug mode'
      )
   ; // nice, new line
 }

If you need the Silex\Application $app you can retrieve it using the getSilexApplication() function (available in the Knp\Command\Command namespace).

Next we need a console script which will use the Command created earlier. This will look something like this:

Tip: If the executing fails, try php -d display_errors script.php to check syntax mistakes.

The execute commands looks like this:

protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output) {
// use $input->getArgument('userId'); and $input->getOption('debug')
}

This is actually all you need to do. The configuration in your ImportCommand file will basically tell your console how to use it. Running [path to console file] without arguments will give you output about how to use your options and commands. (ex. app/console/imports).

Wow! Now you can while(true) or for(;;) the shit out of your application!