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PHP Templating Logo with a Rooster on it PHP Templating Logo with a Rooster on it

Schranz Templating

A template abstraction for PHP template engines.


This project should help to find a way for a general Template Render Interface. And show an integration of different Template Engines into all common PHP frameworks.

Discussion in the PHP-FIG:

Target is that Content Management Systems like Sulu CMS or even Typo3 but also any library which a project defines how the data is rendered can use the TemplateRendererInterface to render their content to give 100% freedom about the used Template engine to their projects and easier to implement this kind of libraries into different PHP frameworks.

Table of Contents

Motivation

Why a TemplateRendererInterface?

Somebody mostly don't see a lot of effort what a TemplateRendererInterface can do for the PHP ecosystem. While most Frameworks has a goto Template Engine, there are also some Frameworks not provided with a specific one and want to support multiple (e.g.: Mezzio, Laminas, Yii, ...). A TemplateRendererInterface can help it make the integration of every Template engine easier. And even allow to easier upgrade Legacy projects to newer Frameworks as not the whole templates need to be migrated. But also major frameworks like Symfony and Laravel could benefit from supporting a more secure Template engine like Latte.

But not only Framework can benefit from a general TemplateRendererInterface, a common interface also allows CMS like Sulu CMS, Typo3, ... and more allow to give the Frontend Developer the full freedom how to write their Templates. While working on Sulu CMS and working alot with Hexagonal Architecture from DDD. I was thinking that the PHP-FIG is missing a template abstraction for PHP template engines. So system can provide controllers which provide data and projects define how that data should be rendered with the template engine of there choice. Specially as CMS today allow to provide Content via JSON and render a website via React, Angular, Vue, ... they should also be free to render their website via Twig, Blade, Latte, ... or whatever Template engine they prefer.

Beside Frameworks and CMSs a general TemplateRendererInterface also helps Library Authors to integrate their library easier into different Frameworks. E.g. a mail library like symfony/mailer which provides a TemplatedEmail class could be changed to render the email body via the TemplateRendererInterface. And so could be also be used to render emails with Blade, Latte and not only Twig. Which make it easier to use this component also in other Frameworks. Also, other functionality like inky or inline_css functionality could be provided to every Template Engine via an adapter pattern. Even Controllers can more easily be provided by Libraries as they would no longer need to be written for all Frameworks template engine.

I think a common TemplateRendererInterface would be a great addition to the PHP ecosystem and would make it easier to use different PHP Libraries, Framework and CMS with the Template Engine somebody prefers and even make Project upgrade and Framework changes easier.

Different to exist Abstractions

There are currently existing abstraction for Template engines. Most common inside some frameworks in the past there did exist the symfony/templating. Other abstraction are mezzio/mezzio-template, laminas/laminas-view, template-interop/engine, and some more.

A common mistake in these abstractions which also are integrations are that they are doing more than they should. Some like example Mezzio is also abstracting configuration. As example paths, this is bad in two ways, it forces that it can only support template engine which supports multiple paths or even require template engine which load there template via a Filesystem loader. So this forced configuration would not allow us to use a Template engine which is using different kind of loading of does not support multiple directories like Mustache, Latte (current state), Handlebars.

So this abstraction follows the Single-Responsibility-Principle which we defined on a very limited scope and that is rendering a given template with the given data.

All template engines are different and there integrations into the different frameworks requires that the template engines have their own configuration and no config abstraction around it. The project decides how to configure the template engine and library authors just use the Interface to render a configured template with the data that library provides.

Also, a common mistake in integrations of Template Engine in Frameworks are not providing the inner template engine to the outside. I did stumble over integration of Blade into Symfony Framework which does not provide Blade itself just a Wrapper service around Blade. This does example not allow me use a Library which requires Blade directly. So all integrations not only provide the Adapter for the TemplateRendererInterface but also the Template Engine service itself. This way libraries which do not yet support the TemplateRendererInterface can easily be integrated into any Framework. As the provided Integrations provides also the inner Template Engine as a service which could be used in these edge case.

So the target is a simple Abstract Interface for Rendering a Template with given data. And providing well documented integrations of Template engines into all kind of Frameworks without limiting there direct usage and extensibility.

Project Status

Following table should show the process of integration of different template engines and the abstract Interface into the different Frameworks. The first part shows the main supported template engines Twig, Blade and Latte. This is actively maintained template engines. The second part shows some older template engines which are supported but not actively maintained.
The third part shows framework specific view integrations which will only be supported in the specific framework they are used.
The last part are some exotic template engines which did come up and are also adapters implemented for them.
On the right part of the table shows frameworks which are planned to be supported but are not yet implemented.

Template Engine Adapter Symfony Laravel Laminas Mezzio Spiral Yii Typo3 Cake CodeIgniter
Twig ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Blade ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Latte ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Plates ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Smarty ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Handlebars ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Mustache ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Laminas View ✅ ✅
Mezzio Template ✅ ✅
Spiral View ✅ ✅
Yii View ✅
Aura View ✅
Fluid ✅
Cake View
Contao
Qiq ✅
PHPTAL ✅
Brainy ✅

Example Applications

There exist for all already implemented frameworks an example application. Which shows you how to use the Interface or a specific adapter inside the framework.

Go into one of the application directory and run:

composer install

php -S 127.0.0.1:8000 -t public

Open then http://127.0.0.1:8000/ to get a list of available integrations in the example.

Usage

Usage for Library Authors

If you create a library, framework or whatever reusable package you should just require the template renderer in the require section of your composer.json:

composer require schranz-templating/template-renderer

As library author every service which render a template should use the TemplateRendererInterface. Also every templateName should come from a configuration which can be defined by the user of your library. That configuration depends on which framework your library is integrated into.

Example Controller:

namespace Your\Package;

use Schranz\Templating\TemplateRendererInterface;

class YourController
{
    public function __construct(
        private TemplateRendererInterface $templateRenderer,
        private string $templateName,
    ) {
    }

    public function yourAction(): YourResponse
    {
        $content = $this->templateRenderer->render($this->templateName, ['your' => 'data']);

        return new YourResponse($content);
    }
}

To test your library you can use any of the provided adapters and integrations as require-dev dependency. There should be no requirement to an adapter or integration in the require section of your libraries composer.json. This allows the user of your library to choice which one matches best for their used project and framework.

Usage for Projects

Projects depending on libraries which where build on top of the schranz-templating/template-render abstract should require the renderer package and an adapter to the template engine they want to use:

composer require schranz-templating/twig-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/blade-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/latte-adapter

composer require schranz-templating/plates-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/smarty-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/brainy-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/handlebars-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/mustache-adapter

composer require schranz-templating/aura-view-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/fluid-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/laminas-view-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/mezzio-template-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/spiral-view-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/yii-view-adapter

composer require schranz-templating/phptal-adapter
composer require schranz-templating/qiq-adapter

Why Adapters?

As it would be too much work to create forks of every template engines to implement the interface for prototyping it is easier to use the Adapter Design Pattern to transfer from the TemplateRendererInterface to underlying template engines.

Usage for Symfony Projects

To use the integration in the Symfony Framework the following packages are currently provided, which will register the adapter service and integration of the selected template engine:

composer require schranz-templating/symfony-twig-integration
composer require schranz-templating/symfony-blade-integration
composer require schranz-templating/symfony-latte-integration

composer require schranz-templating/symfony-plates-integration
composer require schranz-templating/symfony-smarty-integration
composer require schranz-templating/symfony-handlebars-integration
composer require schranz-templating/symfony-mustache-integration

Usage for Laravel Projects

To use the integration in the Laravel Framework the following packages are currently provided, which will register the adapter service and integration of the selected template engine:

composer require schranz-templating/laravel-spiral-view-integration

composer require schranz-templating/laravel-twig-integration
composer require schranz-templating/laravel-blade-integration
composer require schranz-templating/laravel-latte-integration

composer require schranz-templating/laravel-plates-integration
composer require schranz-templating/laravel-smarty-integration
composer require schranz-templating/laravel-handlebars-integration
composer require schranz-templating/laravel-mustache-integration

Usage for Laminas Projects

To use the integration in the Laminas Framework the following packages are currently provided, which will register the adapter service and integration of the selected template engine:

composer require schranz-templating/laminas-laminas-view-integration

composer require schranz-templating/laminas-twig-integration
composer require schranz-templating/laminas-blade-integration
composer require schranz-templating/laminas-latte-integration

composer require schranz-templating/laminas-plates-integration
composer require schranz-templating/laminas-smarty-integration
composer require schranz-templating/laminas-handlebars-integration
composer require schranz-templating/laminas-mustache-integration

Usage for Mezzio Projects

To use the integration in the Mezzio Framework the following packages are currently provided, which will register the adapter service and integration of the selected template engine:

composer require schranz-templating/mezzio-mezzio-template-integration

composer require schranz-templating/mezzio-twig-integration
composer require schranz-templating/mezzio-blade-integration
composer require schranz-templating/mezzio-latte-integration

composer require schranz-templating/mezzio-plates-integration
composer require schranz-templating/mezzio-smarty-integration
composer require schranz-templating/mezzio-handlebars-integration
composer require schranz-templating/mezzio-mustache-integration

Usage for Spiral Projects

To use the integration in the Spiral Framework the following packages are currently provided, which will register the adapter service and integration of the selected template engine:

composer require schranz-templating/spiral-spiral-view-integration

composer require schranz-templating/spiral-twig-integration
composer require schranz-templating/spiral-blade-integration
composer require schranz-templating/spiral-latte-integration

composer require schranz-templating/spiral-plates-integration
composer require schranz-templating/spiral-smarty-integration
composer require schranz-templating/spiral-handlebars-integration
composer require schranz-templating/spiral-mustache-integration

Package List

The current project already provides about more than ~50 packages to integrate different template engines into different frameworks.

Analysis

In the following table we will ist all yet found interesting template engines and view renderers. What kind of version they currently are and what PHP Version they are supporting. Also, what kind of features are supported by them.

Engine Version PHP Version Inheritance Subviews Namespaces Functions Filters Exist Partial Streaming String Raw Globals
Twig 3.4.1 >=7.2.5 [x] [x] @ [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
Blade 9.15.0 ^8.1 [x] [x] :: ? ? ? [x] ? [x] ? ?
Latte 3.0.0 >=8.0 <8.2 [x] ? [x] ? ? ? [x] [x] ?
Plates 3.4.0 ^7.0 ^8.0 [x] [x] :: [x] ? ? [x] ? ?
Smarty 4.1.1 ^7.1 ^8.0 [x] ? [x] ? ? ? [x] [x] ? ?
Brainy 4.0.0 >=7.3 [x] ? [x] ? ? ? [x] [x] ? ?
Mustache 2.14.1 >=5.2.4 ? ? ? ? ? ? [x] ? ?
Handlebars 3.0 >=5.4.0 ? ? ? ? ? ? [x] ? ?
Mezzio Template 3.10.0 ~7.4.0 ~8.0.0 ~8.1.0 [x] [x] @ ? ? ? ? [x] ? ?
Spiral View 2.13.1 >=7.4 [x] ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Laminas View 2.20.0 ^7.4 ~8.0.0 ~8.1.0 [x] [x] ? ? ? ? ? ? [x] ? ?
Yii View 5.0.0 ^7.4 ^8.0 [x] [x] [x] @ ? ? ? ? ? [x] ? ?
Fluid 2.7.1 >=5.5.0 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? [x] ? ?
Contao 4.13.4 ^7.4 ^8.0 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? [x] ? ?
Aura View 2.4.0 >=5.4.0 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? [x] ? ?
Qiq 1.0.2 ^8.0 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? [x] ? ?
PHPTAL 1.7.0 ~8.0.0 ~8.1.0 ~8.2.0 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? [x] ? ?

Feature Support

In the table above it is listed which features are supported by different template engines. Beneath a more detail description about the requirement to fulfill it is given.

Inheritance

With support for template inheritance it means that a rendered template can inherit from a parent template and overwrite parts in the template language itself. This feature is not fulfilled for template engines which only allow to give subviews into a parent view or other way around.

E.g.: This is achieved in twig via extends and blocks. In blade via extends and sections keywords. In latte via layout and blocks keywords. Laminas view via the layout helper.

Subviews

This is the opposite way of creating layout and base template. Why it is possible via all engines to call several render calls and put template together. This is only fulfilled for template engines explicit working with a view, layout system and support given view with subviews them in the renderer call.

E.g.: In laminas view this is possible via the setLayout before calling the rendering of the template.

This is not fulfilled by twig, blade or latte as they support layout and inheritance only on template level not on render caller level.

Namespaces

The template engine allow to render specific template from different directories via namepaces. Also how a namespace is reference should be listed.

E.g. This is achieved in twig via the @Namespace/ and in Blade and Latte via namespace:: template names.

Functions

The template engine allows to define custom functions which can be called via the that name in the template.

E.g.: This is achieved in twig via twig extension and twig functions.

Exist

The template engine allows to check if a template with a specific name does exist or not.

E.g.: This is achieved in twig via the getLoader()->exist method.

Filter

The template engine allows to define custom filters which can be called via the that name on a specific variable in the template.

E.g.: This is achieved in twig via twig extension, twig filters and the filter | operator.

Partial

The template engine allows to render only a subpart of a template.

E.g. This is achieved in twig via loading the template and use the templates renderBlock method. In blade via the fragment method on the view newly added in lately.

Streaming

Supports to stream the template directly to the output and not have the need to keep all in a string variable.

E.g. This is achieved in twig via the display method.

String

Supports to return the template as a string.

E.g. This is achieved in twig via the render method, in Smarty/Brainy view the fetch method.

Raw

Some engines provide auto escaping like twig and latte. In extensions there need to be a way to disable it.

E.g.: In twig this is handled via ['is_safe' => 'html'], in Latte via Latte\Runtime\Html($var) class.

Globals

If the template engine supports to define globals.

E.g.: In twig globals can be defined via extensions.

Tooling

Tooling around template engines:

Please let me know about more tools around template engines.