Templating

Templating

Learn about using Twig templating to display dynamic content.

October CMS extends the Twig template language (opens new window) with a number of functions, tags, filters and variables. These extensions allow you to use the CMS features and access the page environment information inside your templates.

# Variables

Template variables are printed on the page using double curly brackets.

{{ variable }}

Variables can also represent expressions.

{{ isAjax ? 'Yes' : 'No' }}

Variables can be concatenated with the ~ character.

{{ 'Your name: ' ~ name }}

October provides global variables under the this variable, as listed under the Variables section.

# Tags

Tags are a unique feature to Twig and are wrapped with {% %} characters.

{% tag %}

Tags provide a more fluent way to describe template logic.

{% if stormCloudComing %}
    Stay inside
{% else %}
    Go outside and play
{% endif %}

The {% set %} tag can be used to set variables inside the template.

{% set activePage = 'blog' %}

Tags can take on many different syntaxes and are listed under the Tags section.

# Filters

Filters act as modifiers to variables for a single instance and are applied using a pipe symbol followed by the filter name.

{{ 'string'|filter }}

Filters can take arguments like a function.

{{ price|currency('USD') }}

Filters can be applied in succession.

{{ 'October Glory'|upper|replace({'October': 'Morning'}) }}

Filters are listed under the Filters section.

# Functions

Functions allow logic to be executed and the return result acts as a variable.

{{ function() }}

Functions can take arguments.

{{ dump(variable) }}

Functions are listed under the Functions section.

# Access logic

The most important thing to learn about Twig is how it accesses the PHP layer. For convenience sake {{ foo.bar }} does the following checks on a PHP object:

  1. Check if foo is an array and bar a valid element.
  2. If not, and if foo is an object, check that bar is a valid property.
  3. If not, and if foo is an object, check that bar is a valid method (even if bar is the constructor - use __construct() instead).
  4. If not, and if foo is an object, check that getBar is a valid method.
  5. If not, and if foo is an object, check that isBar is a valid method.
  6. If not, return a null value.

# Unsupported features

There are some features offered by Twig that are not supported by October CMS. They are listed below next to the equivalent feature.

Tag Equivalent
{% extend %} Use Layouts or {% placeholder %}
{% include %} Use {% partial %} or {% content %}