1Twig for Developers
2===================
3
4This chapter describes the API to Twig and not the template language. It will
5be most useful as reference to those implementing the template interface to
6the application and not those who are creating Twig templates.
7
8Basics
9------
10
11Twig uses a central object called the **environment** (of class
12``\Twig\Environment``). Instances of this class are used to store the
13configuration and extensions, and are used to load templates from the file
14system or other locations.
15
16Most applications will create one ``\Twig\Environment`` object on application
17initialization and use that to load templates. In some cases it's however
18useful to have multiple environments side by side, if different configurations
19are in use.
20
21The simplest way to configure Twig to load templates for your application
22looks roughly like this::
23
24    require_once '/path/to/lib/Twig/Autoloader.php';
25    Twig_Autoloader::register();
26
27    $loader = new \Twig\Loader\FilesystemLoader('/path/to/templates');
28    $twig = new \Twig\Environment($loader, [
29        'cache' => '/path/to/compilation_cache',
30    ]);
31
32This will create a template environment with the default settings and a loader
33that looks up the templates in the ``/path/to/templates/`` folder. Different
34loaders are available and you can also write your own if you want to load
35templates from a database or other resources.
36
37.. note::
38
39    Notice that the second argument of the environment is an array of options.
40    The ``cache`` option is a compilation cache directory, where Twig caches
41    the compiled templates to avoid the parsing phase for sub-sequent
42    requests. It is very different from the cache you might want to add for
43    the evaluated templates. For such a need, you can use any available PHP
44    cache library.
45
46Rendering Templates
47-------------------
48
49To load a template from a Twig environment, call the ``load()`` method which
50returns a ``\Twig\TemplateWrapper`` instance::
51
52    $template = $twig->load('index.html');
53
54.. note::
55
56    Before Twig 1.28, you should use ``loadTemplate()`` instead which returns a
57    ``\Twig\Template`` instance.
58
59To render the template with some variables, call the ``render()`` method::
60
61    echo $template->render(['the' => 'variables', 'go' => 'here']);
62
63.. note::
64
65    The ``display()`` method is a shortcut to output the template directly.
66
67You can also load and render the template in one fell swoop::
68
69    echo $twig->render('index.html', ['the' => 'variables', 'go' => 'here']);
70
71.. versionadded:: 1.28
72    The possibility to render blocks from the API was added in Twig 1.28.
73
74If a template defines blocks, they can be rendered individually via the
75``renderBlock()`` call::
76
77    echo $template->renderBlock('block_name', ['the' => 'variables', 'go' => 'here']);
78
79.. _environment_options:
80
81Environment Options
82-------------------
83
84When creating a new ``\Twig\Environment`` instance, you can pass an array of
85options as the constructor second argument::
86
87    $twig = new \Twig\Environment($loader, ['debug' => true]);
88
89The following options are available:
90
91* ``debug`` *boolean*
92
93  When set to ``true``, the generated templates have a
94  ``__toString()`` method that you can use to display the generated nodes
95  (default to ``false``).
96
97* ``charset`` *string* (defaults to ``utf-8``)
98
99  The charset used by the templates.
100
101* ``base_template_class`` *string* (defaults to ``\Twig\Template``)
102
103  The base template class to use for generated
104  templates.
105
106* ``cache`` *string* or ``false``
107
108  An absolute path where to store the compiled templates, or
109  ``false`` to disable caching (which is the default).
110
111* ``auto_reload`` *boolean*
112
113  When developing with Twig, it's useful to recompile the
114  template whenever the source code changes. If you don't provide a value for
115  the ``auto_reload`` option, it will be determined automatically based on the
116  ``debug`` value.
117
118* ``strict_variables`` *boolean*
119
120  If set to ``false``, Twig will silently ignore invalid
121  variables (variables and or attributes/methods that do not exist) and
122  replace them with a ``null`` value. When set to ``true``, Twig throws an
123  exception instead (default to ``false``).
124
125* ``autoescape`` *string* or *boolean*
126
127  If set to ``true``, HTML auto-escaping will be enabled by
128  default for all templates (default to ``true``).
129
130  As of Twig 1.8, you can set the escaping strategy to use (``html``, ``js``,
131  ``false`` to disable).
132
133  As of Twig 1.9, you can set the escaping strategy to use (``css``, ``url``,
134  ``html_attr``, or a PHP callback that takes the template name and must
135  return the escaping strategy to use -- the callback cannot be a function name
136  to avoid collision with built-in escaping strategies).
137
138  As of Twig 1.17, the ``filename`` escaping strategy (renamed to ``name`` as
139  of Twig 1.27) determines the escaping strategy to use for a template based on
140  the template filename extension (this strategy does not incur any overhead at
141  runtime as auto-escaping is done at compilation time.)
142
143* ``optimizations`` *integer*
144
145  A flag that indicates which optimizations to apply
146  (default to ``-1`` -- all optimizations are enabled; set it to ``0`` to
147  disable).
148
149Loaders
150-------
151
152Loaders are responsible for loading templates from a resource such as the file
153system.
154
155Compilation Cache
156~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
157
158All template loaders can cache the compiled templates on the filesystem for
159future reuse. It speeds up Twig a lot as templates are only compiled once; and
160the performance boost is even larger if you use a PHP accelerator such as APC.
161See the ``cache`` and ``auto_reload`` options of ``\Twig\Environment`` above
162for more information.
163
164Built-in Loaders
165~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
166
167Here is a list of the built-in loaders Twig provides:
168
169``\Twig\Loader\FilesystemLoader``
170.................................
171
172.. versionadded:: 1.10
173    The ``prependPath()`` and support for namespaces were added in Twig 1.10.
174
175.. versionadded:: 1.27
176    Relative paths support was added in Twig 1.27.
177
178``\Twig\Loader\FilesystemLoader`` loads templates from the file system. This loader
179can find templates in folders on the file system and is the preferred way to
180load them::
181
182    $loader = new \Twig\Loader\FilesystemLoader($templateDir);
183
184It can also look for templates in an array of directories::
185
186    $loader = new \Twig\Loader\FilesystemLoader([$templateDir1, $templateDir2]);
187
188With such a configuration, Twig will first look for templates in
189``$templateDir1`` and if they do not exist, it will fallback to look for them
190in the ``$templateDir2``.
191
192You can add or prepend paths via the ``addPath()`` and ``prependPath()``
193methods::
194
195    $loader->addPath($templateDir3);
196    $loader->prependPath($templateDir4);
197
198The filesystem loader also supports namespaced templates. This allows to group
199your templates under different namespaces which have their own template paths.
200
201When using the ``setPaths()``, ``addPath()``, and ``prependPath()`` methods,
202specify the namespace as the second argument (when not specified, these
203methods act on the "main" namespace)::
204
205    $loader->addPath($templateDir, 'admin');
206
207Namespaced templates can be accessed via the special
208``@namespace_name/template_path`` notation::
209
210    $twig->render('@admin/index.html', []);
211
212``\Twig\Loader\FilesystemLoader`` support absolute and relative paths. Using relative
213paths is preferred as it makes the cache keys independent of the project root
214directory (for instance, it allows warming the cache from a build server where
215the directory might be different from the one used on production servers)::
216
217    $loader = new \Twig\Loader\FilesystemLoader('templates', getcwd().'/..');
218
219.. note::
220
221    When not passing the root path as a second argument, Twig uses ``getcwd()``
222    for relative paths.
223
224``\Twig\Loader\ArrayLoader``
225............................
226
227``\Twig\Loader\ArrayLoader`` loads a template from a PHP array. It's passed an array
228of strings bound to template names::
229
230    $loader = new \Twig\Loader\ArrayLoader([
231        'index.html' => 'Hello {{ name }}!',
232    ]);
233    $twig = new \Twig\Environment($loader);
234
235    echo $twig->render('index.html', ['name' => 'Fabien']);
236
237This loader is very useful for unit testing. It can also be used for small
238projects where storing all templates in a single PHP file might make sense.
239
240.. tip::
241
242    When using the ``Array`` or ``String`` loaders with a cache mechanism, you
243    should know that a new cache key is generated each time a template content
244    "changes" (the cache key being the source code of the template). If you
245    don't want to see your cache grows out of control, you need to take care
246    of clearing the old cache file by yourself.
247
248``\Twig\Loader\ChainLoader``
249............................
250
251``\Twig\Loader\ChainLoader`` delegates the loading of templates to other loaders::
252
253    $loader1 = new \Twig\Loader\ArrayLoader([
254        'base.html' => '{% block content %}{% endblock %}',
255    ]);
256    $loader2 = new \Twig\Loader\ArrayLoader([
257        'index.html' => '{% extends "base.html" %}{% block content %}Hello {{ name }}{% endblock %}',
258        'base.html'  => 'Will never be loaded',
259    ]);
260
261    $loader = new \Twig\Loader\ChainLoader([$loader1, $loader2]);
262
263    $twig = new \Twig\Environment($loader);
264
265When looking for a template, Twig will try each loader in turn and it will
266return as soon as the template is found. When rendering the ``index.html``
267template from the above example, Twig will load it with ``$loader2`` but the
268``base.html`` template will be loaded from ``$loader1``.
269
270``\Twig\Loader\ChainLoader`` accepts any loader that implements
271``\Twig\Loader\LoaderInterface``.
272
273.. note::
274
275    You can also add loaders via the ``addLoader()`` method.
276
277Create your own Loader
278~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
279
280All loaders implement the ``\Twig\Loader\LoaderInterface``::
281
282    interface Twig_LoaderInterface
283    {
284        /**
285         * Gets the source code of a template, given its name.
286         *
287         * @param  string $name string The name of the template to load
288         *
289         * @return string The template source code
290         *
291         * @deprecated since 1.27 (to be removed in 2.0), implement \Twig\Loader\SourceContextLoaderInterface
292         */
293        function getSource($name);
294
295        /**
296         * Gets the cache key to use for the cache for a given template name.
297         *
298         * @param  string $name string The name of the template to load
299         *
300         * @return string The cache key
301         */
302        function getCacheKey($name);
303
304        /**
305         * Returns true if the template is still fresh.
306         *
307         * @param string    $name The template name
308         * @param timestamp $time The last modification time of the cached template
309         */
310        function isFresh($name, $time);
311    }
312
313The ``isFresh()`` method must return ``true`` if the current cached template
314is still fresh, given the last modification time, or ``false`` otherwise.
315
316.. note::
317
318    As of Twig 1.27, you should also implement
319    ``\Twig\Loader\SourceContextLoaderInterface`` to avoid deprecation notices.
320
321.. tip::
322
323    As of Twig 1.11.0, you can also implement ``\Twig\Loader\ExistsLoaderInterface``
324    to make your loader faster when used with the chain loader.
325
326Using Extensions
327----------------
328
329Twig extensions are packages that add new features to Twig. Using an
330extension is as simple as using the ``addExtension()`` method::
331
332    $twig->addExtension(new \Twig\Extension\SandboxExtension());
333
334Twig comes bundled with the following extensions:
335
336* *Twig_Extension_Core*: Defines all the core features of Twig.
337
338* *Twig_Extension_Escaper*: Adds automatic output-escaping and the possibility
339  to escape/unescape blocks of code.
340
341* *Twig_Extension_Sandbox*: Adds a sandbox mode to the default Twig
342  environment, making it safe to evaluate untrusted code.
343
344* *Twig_Extension_Profiler*: Enabled the built-in Twig profiler (as of Twig
345  1.18).
346
347* *Twig_Extension_Optimizer*: Optimizes the node tree before compilation.
348
349The core, escaper, and optimizer extensions do not need to be added to the
350Twig environment, as they are registered by default.
351
352Built-in Extensions
353-------------------
354
355This section describes the features added by the built-in extensions.
356
357.. tip::
358
359    Read the chapter about extending Twig to learn how to create your own
360    extensions.
361
362Core Extension
363~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
364
365The ``core`` extension defines all the core features of Twig:
366
367* :doc:`Tags <tags/index>`;
368* :doc:`Filters <filters/index>`;
369* :doc:`Functions <functions/index>`;
370* :doc:`Tests <tests/index>`.
371
372Escaper Extension
373~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
374
375The ``escaper`` extension adds automatic output escaping to Twig. It defines a
376tag, ``autoescape``, and a filter, ``raw``.
377
378When creating the escaper extension, you can switch on or off the global
379output escaping strategy::
380
381    $escaper = new \Twig\Extension\EscaperExtension('html');
382    $twig->addExtension($escaper);
383
384If set to ``html``, all variables in templates are escaped (using the ``html``
385escaping strategy), except those using the ``raw`` filter:
386
387.. code-block:: jinja
388
389    {{ article.to_html|raw }}
390
391You can also change the escaping mode locally by using the ``autoescape`` tag
392(see the :doc:`autoescape<tags/autoescape>` doc for the syntax used before
393Twig 1.8):
394
395.. code-block:: jinja
396
397    {% autoescape 'html' %}
398        {{ var }}
399        {{ var|raw }}      {# var won't be escaped #}
400        {{ var|escape }}   {# var won't be double-escaped #}
401    {% endautoescape %}
402
403.. warning::
404
405    The ``autoescape`` tag has no effect on included files.
406
407The escaping rules are implemented as follows:
408
409* Literals (integers, booleans, arrays, ...) used in the template directly as
410  variables or filter arguments are never automatically escaped:
411
412  .. code-block:: jinja
413
414        {{ "Twig<br />" }} {# won't be escaped #}
415
416        {% set text = "Twig<br />" %}
417        {{ text }} {# will be escaped #}
418
419* Expressions which the result is always a literal or a variable marked safe
420  are never automatically escaped:
421
422  .. code-block:: jinja
423
424        {{ foo ? "Twig<br />" : "<br />Twig" }} {# won't be escaped #}
425
426        {% set text = "Twig<br />" %}
427        {{ foo ? text : "<br />Twig" }} {# will be escaped #}
428
429        {% set text = "Twig<br />" %}
430        {{ foo ? text|raw : "<br />Twig" }} {# won't be escaped #}
431
432        {% set text = "Twig<br />" %}
433        {{ foo ? text|escape : "<br />Twig" }} {# the result of the expression won't be escaped #}
434
435* Escaping is applied before printing, after any other filter is applied:
436
437  .. code-block:: jinja
438
439        {{ var|upper }} {# is equivalent to {{ var|upper|escape }} #}
440
441* The `raw` filter should only be used at the end of the filter chain:
442
443  .. code-block:: jinja
444
445        {{ var|raw|upper }} {# will be escaped #}
446
447        {{ var|upper|raw }} {# won't be escaped #}
448
449* Automatic escaping is not applied if the last filter in the chain is marked
450  safe for the current context (e.g. ``html`` or ``js``). ``escape`` and
451  ``escape('html')`` are marked safe for HTML, ``escape('js')`` is marked
452  safe for JavaScript, ``raw`` is marked safe for everything.
453
454  .. code-block:: jinja
455
456        {% autoescape 'js' %}
457            {{ var|escape('html') }} {# will be escaped for HTML and JavaScript #}
458            {{ var }} {# will be escaped for JavaScript #}
459            {{ var|escape('js') }} {# won't be double-escaped #}
460        {% endautoescape %}
461
462.. note::
463
464    Note that autoescaping has some limitations as escaping is applied on
465    expressions after evaluation. For instance, when working with
466    concatenation, ``{{ foo|raw ~ bar }}`` won't give the expected result as
467    escaping is applied on the result of the concatenation, not on the
468    individual variables (so, the ``raw`` filter won't have any effect here).
469
470Sandbox Extension
471~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
472
473The ``sandbox`` extension can be used to evaluate untrusted code. Access to
474unsafe attributes and methods is prohibited. The sandbox security is managed
475by a policy instance. By default, Twig comes with one policy class:
476``\Twig\Sandbox\SecurityPolicy``. This class allows you to white-list some
477tags, filters, properties, and methods::
478
479    $tags = ['if'];
480    $filters = ['upper'];
481    $methods = [
482        'Article' => ['getTitle', 'getBody'],
483    ];
484    $properties = [
485        'Article' => ['title', 'body'],
486    ];
487    $functions = ['range'];
488    $policy = new \Twig\Sandbox\SecurityPolicy($tags, $filters, $methods, $properties, $functions);
489
490With the previous configuration, the security policy will only allow usage of
491the ``if`` tag, and the ``upper`` filter. Moreover, the templates will only be
492able to call the ``getTitle()`` and ``getBody()`` methods on ``Article``
493objects, and the ``title`` and ``body`` public properties. Everything else
494won't be allowed and will generate a ``\Twig\Sandbox\SecurityError`` exception.
495
496The policy object is the first argument of the sandbox constructor::
497
498    $sandbox = new \Twig\Extension\SandboxExtension($policy);
499    $twig->addExtension($sandbox);
500
501By default, the sandbox mode is disabled and should be enabled when including
502untrusted template code by using the ``sandbox`` tag:
503
504.. code-block:: jinja
505
506    {% sandbox %}
507        {% include 'user.html' %}
508    {% endsandbox %}
509
510You can sandbox all templates by passing ``true`` as the second argument of
511the extension constructor::
512
513    $sandbox = new \Twig\Extension\SandboxExtension($policy, true);
514
515Profiler Extension
516~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
517
518.. versionadded:: 1.18
519    The Profile extension was added in Twig 1.18.
520
521The ``profiler`` extension enables a profiler for Twig templates; it should
522only be used on your development machines as it adds some overhead::
523
524    $profile = new \Twig\Profiler\Profile();
525    $twig->addExtension(new \Twig\Extension\ProfilerExtension($profile));
526
527    $dumper = new \Twig\Profiler\Dumper\TextDumper();
528    echo $dumper->dump($profile);
529
530A profile contains information about time and memory consumption for template,
531block, and macro executions.
532
533You can also dump the data in a `Blackfire.io <https://blackfire.io/>`_
534compatible format::
535
536    $dumper = new \Twig\Profiler\Dumper\BlackfireDumper();
537    file_put_contents('/path/to/profile.prof', $dumper->dump($profile));
538
539Upload the profile to visualize it (create a `free account
540<https://blackfire.io/signup>`_ first):
541
542.. code-block:: sh
543
544    blackfire --slot=7 upload /path/to/profile.prof
545
546Optimizer Extension
547~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
548
549The ``optimizer`` extension optimizes the node tree before compilation::
550
551    $twig->addExtension(new \Twig\Extension\OptimizerExtension());
552
553By default, all optimizations are turned on. You can select the ones you want
554to enable by passing them to the constructor::
555
556    $optimizer = new \Twig\Extension\OptimizerExtension(\Twig\NodeVisitor\OptimizerNodeVisitor::OPTIMIZE_FOR);
557
558    $twig->addExtension($optimizer);
559
560Twig supports the following optimizations:
561
562* ``\Twig\NodeVisitor\OptimizerNodeVisitor::OPTIMIZE_ALL``, enables all optimizations
563  (this is the default value).
564* ``\Twig\NodeVisitor\OptimizerNodeVisitor::OPTIMIZE_NONE``, disables all optimizations.
565  This reduces the compilation time, but it can increase the execution time
566  and the consumed memory.
567* ``\Twig\NodeVisitor\OptimizerNodeVisitor::OPTIMIZE_FOR``, optimizes the ``for`` tag by
568  removing the ``loop`` variable creation whenever possible.
569* ``\Twig\NodeVisitor\OptimizerNodeVisitor::OPTIMIZE_RAW_FILTER``, removes the ``raw``
570  filter whenever possible.
571* ``\Twig\NodeVisitor\OptimizerNodeVisitor::OPTIMIZE_VAR_ACCESS``, simplifies the creation
572  and access of variables in the compiled templates whenever possible.
573
574Exceptions
575----------
576
577Twig can throw exceptions:
578
579* ``\Twig\Error\Error``: The base exception for all errors.
580
581* ``\Twig\Error\SyntaxError``: Thrown to tell the user that there is a problem with
582  the template syntax.
583
584* ``\Twig\Error\RuntimeError``: Thrown when an error occurs at runtime (when a filter
585  does not exist for instance).
586
587* ``\Twig\Error\LoaderError``: Thrown when an error occurs during template loading.
588
589* ``\Twig\Sandbox\SecurityError``: Thrown when an unallowed tag, filter, or
590  method is called in a sandboxed template.
591