Sylius + MySQL + Elasticsearch

advanced

Symfony-based e-commerce platform with full-text search.

Overview

Sylius is a modern, component-based e-commerce platform built on Symfony framework, designed for developers who need flexibility and customization beyond traditional e-commerce solutions like WooCommerce or Magento. Originally created in 2011, Sylius follows Domain-Driven Design principles and provides a headless commerce approach, making it ideal for businesses requiring multi-channel sales, complex product catalogs, or integration with existing enterprise systems. Unlike monolithic platforms, Sylius separates business logic into reusable components, enabling developers to build custom e-commerce experiences while maintaining core commerce functionality. This stack combines Sylius with MySQL for transactional data storage, Elasticsearch for advanced product search and filtering, NGINX as a high-performance web server, and MailHog for email testing during development. MySQL handles order processing, customer data, and inventory management with ACID compliance, while Elasticsearch provides faceted search, autocomplete, and product recommendations that scale with catalog size. NGINX serves static assets efficiently and proxies dynamic requests to the PHP application, while MailHog captures all outgoing emails for testing checkout flows, customer notifications, and marketing campaigns without sending real emails. This configuration targets mid-market retailers, B2B companies, and agencies building custom e-commerce solutions who need enterprise-grade search capabilities and reliable order processing. The combination excels for businesses with complex product catalogs (thousands of SKUs), multiple customer segments, or integration requirements with ERP, CRM, or PIM systems where off-the-shelf platforms fall short.

Key Features

Symfony-based component architecture enabling custom business logic and workflows
Full-text product search with faceted filtering, autocomplete, and relevance scoring via Elasticsearch
Multi-channel commerce support for web, mobile apps, and third-party marketplaces
Advanced promotion engine with coupon codes, discounts, and customer-specific pricing
MySQL InnoDB storage with transaction safety for order processing and inventory management
Flexible taxation system supporting multiple tax zones and complex calculation rules
REST API for headless commerce implementations and third-party integrations
Administrative panel with order management, inventory tracking, and customer service tools

Common Use Cases

1B2B companies selling to multiple customer tiers with custom pricing and approval workflows
2Retailers with large product catalogs requiring advanced search, filtering, and recommendation features
3Agencies developing custom e-commerce solutions for clients with specific business requirements
4Multi-brand retailers managing separate storefronts with shared inventory and customer data
5Marketplace operators connecting multiple vendors with centralized order and payment processing
6International businesses requiring multi-currency support and localized tax calculations
7Companies migrating from legacy e-commerce systems while maintaining custom integrations

Prerequisites

Docker and Docker Compose installed with minimum 6GB available RAM for all services
Ports 80, 8025 available for web interface and MailHog email testing interface
Basic understanding of Symfony framework and PHP application deployment
Familiarity with Elasticsearch indexing concepts for product catalog management
Knowledge of NGINX configuration for SSL termination and performance tuning in production
MySQL administration skills for backup strategies and performance optimization

For development & testing. Review security settings, change default credentials, and test thoroughly before production use. See Terms

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  sylius: 
3    image: sylius/sylius:latest
4    environment: 
5      - APP_ENV=prod
6      - APP_SECRET=${APP_SECRET}
7      - DATABASE_URL=mysql://${MYSQL_USER}:${MYSQL_PASSWORD}@mysql:3306/sylius
8      - ELASTICSEARCH_URL=http://elasticsearch:9200
9      - MAILER_DSN=smtp://mailhog:1025
10    volumes: 
11      - sylius-public:/app/public/media
12    depends_on: 
13      - mysql
14      - elasticsearch
15    networks: 
16      - sylius-network
17    restart: unless-stopped
18
19  nginx: 
20    image: nginx:alpine
21    volumes: 
22      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro
23      - sylius-public:/app/public:ro
24    ports: 
25      - "80:80"
26    depends_on: 
27      - sylius
28    networks: 
29      - sylius-network
30    restart: unless-stopped
31
32  mysql: 
33    image: mysql:8.0
34    environment: 
35      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
36      - MYSQL_DATABASE=sylius
37      - MYSQL_USER=${MYSQL_USER}
38      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_PASSWORD}
39    volumes: 
40      - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql
41    networks: 
42      - sylius-network
43    restart: unless-stopped
44
45  elasticsearch: 
46    image: elasticsearch:7.17.10
47    environment: 
48      - discovery.type=single-node
49      - ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m
50    volumes: 
51      - es-data:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
52    networks: 
53      - sylius-network
54    restart: unless-stopped
55
56  mailhog: 
57    image: mailhog/mailhog
58    ports: 
59      - "8025:8025"
60    networks: 
61      - sylius-network
62    restart: unless-stopped
63
64volumes: 
65  sylius-public: 
66  mysql-data: 
67  es-data: 
68
69networks: 
70  sylius-network: 
71    driver: bridge

.env Template

.env

1# Sylius
2APP_SECRET=your-app-secret-change-this
3MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=secure_root_password
4MYSQL_USER=sylius
5MYSQL_PASSWORD=secure_mysql_password

Usage Notes

1Store at http://localhost
2Admin at http://localhost/admin
3MailHog at http://localhost:8025
4Install fixtures: bin/console sylius:fixtures:load
5Elasticsearch for product search

Individual Services(5 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

sylius

sylius:
  image: sylius/sylius:latest
  environment:
    - APP_ENV=prod
    - APP_SECRET=${APP_SECRET}
    - DATABASE_URL=mysql://${MYSQL_USER}:${MYSQL_PASSWORD}@mysql:3306/sylius
    - ELASTICSEARCH_URL=http://elasticsearch:9200
    - MAILER_DSN=smtp://mailhog:1025
  volumes:
    - sylius-public:/app/public/media
  depends_on:
    - mysql
    - elasticsearch
  networks:
    - sylius-network
  restart: unless-stopped

nginx

nginx:
  image: nginx:alpine
  volumes:
    - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro
    - sylius-public:/app/public:ro
  ports:
    - "80:80"
  depends_on:
    - sylius
  networks:
    - sylius-network
  restart: unless-stopped

mysql

mysql:
  image: mysql:8.0
  environment:
    - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
    - MYSQL_DATABASE=sylius
    - MYSQL_USER=${MYSQL_USER}
    - MYSQL_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_PASSWORD}
  volumes:
    - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql
  networks:
    - sylius-network
  restart: unless-stopped

elasticsearch

elasticsearch:
  image: elasticsearch:7.17.10
  environment:
    - discovery.type=single-node
    - ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m
  volumes:
    - es-data:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
  networks:
    - sylius-network
  restart: unless-stopped

mailhog

mailhog:
  image: mailhog/mailhog
  ports:
    - "8025:8025"
  networks:
    - sylius-network
  restart: unless-stopped

Quick Start

terminal

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  sylius:
5    image: sylius/sylius:latest
6    environment:
7      - APP_ENV=prod
8      - APP_SECRET=${APP_SECRET}
9      - DATABASE_URL=mysql://${MYSQL_USER}:${MYSQL_PASSWORD}@mysql:3306/sylius
10      - ELASTICSEARCH_URL=http://elasticsearch:9200
11      - MAILER_DSN=smtp://mailhog:1025
12    volumes:
13      - sylius-public:/app/public/media
14    depends_on:
15      - mysql
16      - elasticsearch
17    networks:
18      - sylius-network
19    restart: unless-stopped
20
21  nginx:
22    image: nginx:alpine
23    volumes:
24      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro
25      - sylius-public:/app/public:ro
26    ports:
27      - "80:80"
28    depends_on:
29      - sylius
30    networks:
31      - sylius-network
32    restart: unless-stopped
33
34  mysql:
35    image: mysql:8.0
36    environment:
37      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
38      - MYSQL_DATABASE=sylius
39      - MYSQL_USER=${MYSQL_USER}
40      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_PASSWORD}
41    volumes:
42      - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql
43    networks:
44      - sylius-network
45    restart: unless-stopped
46
47  elasticsearch:
48    image: elasticsearch:7.17.10
49    environment:
50      - discovery.type=single-node
51      - ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms512m -Xmx512m
52    volumes:
53      - es-data:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
54    networks:
55      - sylius-network
56    restart: unless-stopped
57
58  mailhog:
59    image: mailhog/mailhog
60    ports:
61      - "8025:8025"
62    networks:
63      - sylius-network
64    restart: unless-stopped
65
66volumes:
67  sylius-public:
68  mysql-data:
69  es-data:
70
71networks:
72  sylius-network:
73    driver: bridge
74EOF
75
76# 2. Create the .env file
77cat > .env << 'EOF'
78# Sylius
79APP_SECRET=your-app-secret-change-this
80MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=secure_root_password
81MYSQL_USER=sylius
82MYSQL_PASSWORD=secure_mysql_password
83EOF
84
85# 3. Start the services
86docker compose up -d
87
88# 4. View logs
89docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

terminal

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/sylius-complete/run | bash

Troubleshooting

Elasticsearch cluster health RED status: Increase Docker memory limit to minimum 4GB and set ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms1g -Xmx1g
Sylius installation fails with memory errors: Add PHP memory_limit=2G environment variable and increase container resources
Product search returns no results: Run bin/console fos:elastica:populate to reindex product catalog in Elasticsearch
MySQL connection refused errors: Verify MYSQL_USER and MYSQL_PASSWORD environment variables match between services
Static assets not loading: Check NGINX volume mounts and ensure sylius-public volume contains uploaded media files
Email notifications not captured: Verify MAILER_DSN points to mailhog:1025 and check MailHog interface at localhost:8025

Community Notes

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Components

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