How do I read configuration settings from Symfony2 config.yml?

I have to add to the answer of douglas, you can access the global config, but symfony translates some parameters, for example:

# config.yml
... 
framework:
    session:
        domain: 'localhost'
...

are

$this->container->parameters['session.storage.options']['domain'];

You can use var_dump to search an specified key or value.

Rather than defining contact_email within app.config, define it in a parameters entry:

parameters:
    contact_email: [email protected]

You should find the call you are making within your controller now works.

While the solution of moving the contact_email to parameters.yml is easy, as proposed in other answers, that can easily clutter your parameters file if you deal with many bundles or if you deal with nested blocks of configuration.

• First, I'll answer strictly the question.
• Later, I'll give an approach for getting those configs from services without ever passing via a common space as parameters.

FIRST APPROACH: Separated config block, getting it as a parameter

With an extension (more on extensions here) you can keep this easily "separated" into different blocks in the config.yml and then inject that as a parameter gettable from the controller.

Inside your Extension class inside the DependencyInjection directory write this:

class MyNiceProjectExtension extends Extension
{
    public function load( array $configs, ContainerBuilder $container )
    {
        // The next 2 lines are pretty common to all Extension templates.
        $configuration = new Configuration();
        $processedConfig = $this->processConfiguration( $configuration, $configs );

        // This is the KEY TO YOUR ANSWER
        $container->setParameter( 'my_nice_project.contact_email', $processedConfig[ 'contact_email' ] );

        // Other stuff like loading services.yml
    }

Then in your config.yml, config_dev.yml and so you can set

my_nice_project:
    contact_email: [email protected]

To be able to process that config.yml inside your MyNiceBundleExtension you'll also need a Configuration class in the same namespace:

class Configuration implements ConfigurationInterface
{
    public function getConfigTreeBuilder()
    {
        $treeBuilder = new TreeBuilder();
        $rootNode = $treeBuilder->root( 'my_nice_project' );

        $rootNode->children()->scalarNode( 'contact_email' )->end();

        return $treeBuilder;
    }
}

Then you can get the config from your controller, as you desired in your original question, but keeping the parameters.yml clean, and setting it in the config.yml in separated sections:

$recipient = $this->container->getParameter( 'my_nice_project.contact_email' );

SECOND APPROACH: Separated config block, injecting the config into a service

For readers looking for something similar but for getting the config from a service, there is even a nicer way that never clutters the "paramaters" common space and does even not need the container to be passed to the service (passing the whole container is practice to avoid).

This trick above still "injects" into the parameters space your config.

Nevertheless, after loading your definition of the service, you could add a method-call like for example setConfig() that injects that block only to the service.

For example, in the Extension class:

class MyNiceProjectExtension extends Extension
{
    public function load( array $configs, ContainerBuilder $container )
    {
        $configuration = new Configuration();
        $processedConfig = $this->processConfiguration( $configuration, $configs );

        // Do not add a paramater now, just continue reading the services.
        $loader = new YamlFileLoader( $container, new FileLocator( __DIR__ . '/../Resources/config' ) );
        $loader->load( 'services.yml' );

        // Once the services definition are read, get your service and add a method call to setConfig()
        $sillyServiceDefintion = $container->getDefinition( 'my.niceproject.sillymanager' );
        $sillyServiceDefintion->addMethodCall( 'setConfig', array( $processedConfig[ 'contact_email' ] ) );
    }
}

Then in your services.yml you define your service as usual, without any absolute change:

services:
    my.niceproject.sillymanager:
        class: My\NiceProjectBundle\Model\SillyManager
        arguments: []

And then in your SillyManager class, just add the method:

class SillyManager
{
    private $contact_email;

    public function setConfig( $newConfigContactEmail )
    {
        $this->contact_email = $newConfigContactEmail;
    }
}

Note that this also works for arrays instead of scalar values! Imagine that you configure a rabbit queue and need host, user and password:

my_nice_project:
    amqp:
        host: 192.168.33.55
        user: guest
        password: guest

Of course you need to change your Tree, but then you can do:

$sillyServiceDefintion->addMethodCall( 'setConfig', array( $processedConfig[ 'amqp' ] ) );

and then in the service do:

class SillyManager
{
    private $host;
    private $user;
    private $password;

    public function setConfig( $config )
    {
        $this->host = $config[ 'host' ];
        $this->user = $config[ 'user' ];
        $this->password = $config[ 'password' ];
    }
}

Hope this helps!