If you just want to see what symfony is capable of, you'll probably go for the fast installation. In that case, you need the sandbox.
The sandbox is a simple archive of files. It contains an empty symfony project including all the required libraries (symfony, lime, Prototype with Scriptaculous, Doctrine and Propel with Phing), a default application, and basic configuration. It will work out of the box, without specific server configuration or any additional packages.
To install it, download the sandbox archive from http://www.symfony-project.org/get/sf_sandbox_1_2.tgz. Unpack it under the root web directory configured for your server (usually web/ or www/). For the purposes of uniformity, this chapter will assume you unpacked it to the directory sf_sandbox/.
Caution Having all the files under the root web directory is fine for your own tests in a local host, but is a bad practice in a production server. It makes all the internals of your application visible to end users.
Test your installation by executing the symfony CLI. Go to the new sf_sandbox/ directory and type the following:
> php symfony -V
You should see the sandbox version number:
symfony version 1.2.0 (/path/to/the/symfony/lib/dir/used/by/the/sandbox)
Now make sure that your web server can browse the sandbox by requesting this URL:
http://localhost/sf_sandbox/web/frontend_dev.php/
You should see a congratulations page that looks like Figure 3-1, and it means that your installation is finished. If not, then an error message will guide you through the configuration changes needed. You can also refer to the "Troubleshooting" section later in this chapter.
Figure 3.1 Sandbox congratulations page
The sandbox is intended for you to practice with symfony on a local computer, not to develop complex applications that may end up on the Web. However, the version of symfony shipped with the sandbox is fully functional and equivalent to the one you can install via PEAR.
To uninstall a sandbox, just remove the sf_sandbox/ directory from your web/ folder.