yii2-bootstrap/docs/guide/template.md

Using template engines

By default Yii uses PHP as template language, but you can configure it to support other rendering engines, such as Twig or Smarty.

The view component is responsible for rendering views. You can add a custom template engines by reconfiguring this component's behavior:

[
	'components' => [
		'view' => [
			'class' => 'yii\web\View',
			'renderers' => [
				'tpl' => [
					'class' => 'yii\smarty\ViewRenderer',
					//'cachePath' => '@runtime/Smarty/cache',
				],
				'twig' => [
					'class' => 'yii\twig\ViewRenderer',
					//'cachePath' => '@runtime/Twig/cache',
					//'options' => [], /*  Array of twig options */
				],
				// ...
			],
		],
	],
]

In the config above we're using Smarty and Twig. In order to get these extensions in your project you need to modify your composer.json to include

"yiisoft/yii2-smarty": "*",
"yiisoft/yii2-twig": "*",

in require section and then run composer update.

Twig

To use Twig, you need to create templates in files with the .twig extension (or use another file extension but configure the component accordingly). Unlike standard view files, when using Twig, you must include the extension when calling $this->render() or $this->renderPartial() from your controller:

echo $this->render('renderer.twig', ['username' => 'Alex']);

Additional functions

Yii adds the following construct to the standard Twig syntax:

<a href="{{ path('blog/view', {'alias' : post.alias}) }}">{{ post.title }}</a>

Internally, the path() function calls Yii's Html::url() method.

Additional variables

Within Twig templates, you can also make use of these variables:

• app, which equates to \Yii::$app
• this, which equates to the current View object

Smarty

To use Smarty, you need to create templates in files with the .tpl extension (or use another file extension but configure the component accordingly). Unlike standard view files, when using Smarty, you must include the extension when calling $this->render() or $this->renderPartial() from your controller:

echo $this->render('renderer.tpl', ['username' => 'Alex']);

Additional functions

Yii adds the following construct to the standard Smarty syntax:

<a href="{path route='blog/view' alias=$post.alias}">{$post.title}</a>

Internally, the path() function calls Yii's Html::url() method.

Additional variables

Within Smarty templates, you can also make use of these variables:

• $app, which equates to \Yii::$app
• $this, which equates to the current View object