symfony · weaverryan · Aug 15, 2014 · Aug 1, 2014 · weaverryan · Aug 15, 2014
diff --git a/components/class_loader/class_map_generator.rst b/components/class_loader/class_map_generator.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
+.. index::
+    single: Autoloading; Class Map Generator
+    single: ClassLoader; Class Map Generator
+
+The Class Map Generator
+=======================
+
+Loading a class usually is an easy task given the `PSR-0`_ and `PSR-4`_ standards.
+Thanks to the Symfony ClassLoader component or the autoloading mechanism provided
+by Composer, you don't have to map your class names to actual PHP files manually.
+Nowadays, PHP libraries usually come with autoloading support through Composer.
+
+But from time to time you may have to use a third-party library that comes
+without any autoloading support and therefore forces you to load each class
+manually. For example, imagine a library with the following directory structure:
+
+.. code-block:: text
+
+    library/
+    ├── bar/
+    │   ├── baz/
+    │   │   └── Boo.php
+    │   └── Foo.php
+    └── foo/
+        ├── bar/
+        │   └── Foo.php
+        └── Bar.php
+
+These files contain the following classes:
+
+=========================== ================
+File                        Class name
+=========================== ================
+``library/bar/baz/Boo.php`` ``Acme\Bar\Baz``
+--------------------------- ----------------
+``library/bar/Foo.php``     ``Acme\Bar``
+--------------------------- ----------------
+``library/foo/bar/Foo.php`` ``Acme\Foo\Bar``
+--------------------------- ----------------
+``library/foo/Bar.php``     ``Acme\Foo``
+=========================== ================
+
+To make your life easier, the ClassLoader component comes with a
+:class:`Symfony\\Component\\ClassLoader\\ClassMapGenerator` class that makes
+it possible to create a map of class names to files.
+
+Generating a Class Map
+----------------------
+
+To generate the class map, simply pass the root directory of your class files
+to the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\ClassLoader\\ClassMapGenerator::createMap``
+method::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\ClassLoader\ClassMapGenerator;
+
+    print_r(ClassMapGenerator::createMap(__DIR__.'/library'));
+
+Given the files and class from the table above, you should see an output like
+this:
+
+.. code-block:: text
+
+    Array
+    (
+        [Acme\Foo] => /var/www/library/foo/Bar.php
+        [Acme\Foo\Bar] => /var/www/library/foo/bar/Foo.php
+        [Acme\Bar\Baz] => /var/www/library/bar/baz/Boo.php
+        [Acme\Bar] => /var/www/library/bar/Foo.php
+    )
+
+Dumping the Class Map
+---------------------
+
+Writing the class map to the console output is not really sufficient when
+it comes to autoloading. Luckily, the ``ClassMapGenerator`` provides the
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\ClassLoader\\ClassMapGenerator::dump` method
+to save the generated class map to the filesystem::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\ClassLoader\ClassMapGenerator;
+
+    ClassMapGenerator::dump(__DIR__.'/library', __DIR__.'/class_map.php');
+
+This call to ``dump()`` generates the class map and writes it to the ``class_map.php``
+file in the same directory with the following contents::
+
+    <?php return array (
+    'Acme\\Foo' => '/var/www/library/foo/Bar.php',
+    'Acme\\Foo\\Bar' => '/var/www/library/foo/bar/Foo.php',
+    'Acme\\Bar\\Baz' => '/var/www/library/bar/baz/Boo.php',
+    'Acme\\Bar' => '/var/www/library/bar/Foo.php',
+    );
+
+Instead of loading each file manually, you'll only have to register the generated
+class map with, for example, the :class:`Symfony\\Component\\ClassLoader\\MapClassLoader`::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\ClassLoader\MapClassLoader;
+
+    $mapping = include __DIR__.'/class_map.php';
+    $loader = new MapClassLoader($mapping);
+    $loader->register();
+
+    // you can now use the classes:
+    use Acme\Foo;
+
+    $foo = new Foo();
+
+    // ...
+
+.. note::
+
+    The example assumes that you already have autoloading working (e. g.
+    through `Composer`_ or one of the other class loaders from the ClassLoader
+    component.
+
+Besides dumping the class map for one directory, you can also pass an array
+of directories for which to generate the class map (the result actually is
+the same as in the example above)::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\ClassLoader\ClassMapGenerator;
+
+    ClassMapGenerator::dump(array(__DIR__.'/library/bar', __DIR__.'/library/foo'), __DIR__.'/class_map.php');
+
+.. _`PSR-0`: http://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-0
+.. _`PSR-4`: http://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-4
+.. _`Composer`: http://getcomposer.org
diff --git a/components/class_loader/index.rst b/components/class_loader/index.rst
@@ -3,9 +3,10 @@ ClassLoader
 
 .. toctree::
     :maxdepth: 2
-    
+
     introduction
     class_loader
     map_class_loader
     cache_class_loader
     debug_class_loader
+    class_map_generator
diff --git a/components/map.rst.inc b/components/map.rst.inc
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
   * :doc:`/components/class_loader/map_class_loader`
   * :doc:`/components/class_loader/cache_class_loader`
   * :doc:`/components/class_loader/debug_class_loader`
+  * :doc:`/components/class_loader/class_map_generator`
 
 * :doc:`/components/config/index`