Generate absolute URL with specific scheme in Symfony2

Best way to go with this

$url = 'https:'.$this->generateUrl($routeName, $parameters, UrlGeneratorInterface::NETWORK_PATH)

According to the code or documentation, currently you cannot do that within the generateUrl method. So your "hackish" solution is still the best, but as @RaymondNijland commented you are better off with str_replace:

$url = str_replace('http:', 'https:', $this->generateUrl($routeName, $parameters));

If you want to make sure it's changed only at the beginning of the string, you can write:

$url = preg_replace('/^http:/', 'https:', $this->generateUrl($routeName, $parameters));

No, the colon (:) has no special meaning in the regex so you don't have to escape it.

With default UrlGenerator, I don't think that is possible, if you don't want to mess with strings.

You could make your own HttpsUrlGenerator extends UrlGenerator introducting one slight change:

Within method generate(), instead of:

return $this->doGenerate(
    $compiledRoute->getVariables(), 
    $route->getDefaults(), 
    $route->getRequirements(), 
    $compiledRoute->getTokens(), 
    $parameters, 
    $name, 
    $referenceType, 
    $compiledRoute->getHostTokens(), 
    $route->getSchemes() 
);

You could do:

return $this->doGenerate(
    $compiledRoute->getVariables(), 
    $route->getDefaults(), 
    $route->getRequirements(), 
    $compiledRoute->getTokens(), 
    $parameters, 
    $name, 
    $referenceType, 
    $compiledRoute->getHostTokens(), 
    ['https']
);

As you can see, $route->getSchemes() gets pumped into doGenerate() based on the route settings (the tutorial link you provided above).

You could even go further and externalize this schema array and supply it via __construct.

Hope this helps a bit ;)