Practical Symfony - Day 3 problem

[backwoodsman]

Installation seemed straightforward, thanks to the very full installation instructions. I can't pretend I fully understand it all, but it works. Up to now. I started the Practical Simfony course, which appears to be also very clear. Everything works as described, with no error messages, but the first page to be rendered (in 'Day 3' of the course) is simply a mess, lacking any form elements -- in fact the html generated does not include the words 'form' or 'input'. The image in the course shows a formatted form at this point. I cannot imagine where to begin looking for the problem.

Any suggestions? Or should I simply return to something I fully understand?

[later edit:]
FWIW, I have checked the database -- it contains all the expected data. I also continued to 'Day 4' and added the page template. This loads in the browser, showing correct css. It is only the page content which is messed up.

[backwoodsman]

... the first page to be rendered (in 'Day 3' of the course) is simply a mess,
...
Any suggestions? Or should I simply return to something I fully understand?

Admittedly, this was not an easy one to answer, and it is not surprising nobody tried. The only strategy I could devise was to repeat everything from download through installation to the "Practical Symfony" course. If it then works, a diff of the files in the new version should help isolate the problem. I have done this and, unfortunately, the result is identical.

I have a lot of experience with PHP and mysql, but none with object-oriented programming. The failure of the training exercise is therefore inscrutable to me and could only me solved after learning more OOP in another context. My advice to anyone else in a similar position would therefore be not to attempt to deploy symfony without further study. It is obviously an excellent framework and very well documented, but solving problems that generate no error messages without a sound understanding of OOP will be either impossible or extremely time-consuming. Stay with what you know.

[halfer]

I have seen a few questions where people say the tutorial shows a styled page, and their version is unstyled; it seems the advice is to press on, and the styles come through eventually, as you found.

In the Jobeet forum, there are tarballs of the Doctrine version (completed) and a Propel one from me (up to day 10). Perhaps they will be of use for you?