Symfony: difference between Action+partial and a Component

Question

why should i use a component instead of an action that renders a partial?

If actions can render partials, when is better using components?

Give me light about it..

Javi

Answer 1

components are used when you want to include some kind of block in different parts of the site (for example, a "Top 10 Sales" or something similar) - that requires some controller code to render. You include a component's output in another template of an action / partial / another component by using

include_component($module_name, $component_name, array('var1' => $var1));

an action is supposed to be called directly by the browser , so you can't include it's output in another template (without some kind of hack) Think of components as a reusable block of html that can get included anywhere, vs actions that are the whole page rendered and sent to the browser