Using template engines
======================
By default Yii uses PHP as template language, but you can configure it to support other rendering engines, such as [Twig ](http://twig.sensiolabs.org/ ) or [Smarty ](http://www.smarty.net/ ).
The component responsible for rendering a view is called `view` . You can add
a custom template engines as follows:
```php
array(
'components' => array(
'view' => array(
'class' => 'yii\base\View',
'renderers' => array(
'tpl' => array(
'class' => 'yii\renderers\SmartyViewRenderer',
),
'twig' => array(
'class' => 'yii\renderers\TwigViewRenderer',
'twigPath' => '@app/vendors/Twig',
),
// ...
),
),
),
)
```
Note that Smarty and Twig are not bundled with Yii and you have to download and
unpack these yourself and then specify `twigPath` and `smartyPath` respectively.
Twig
----
In order to use Twig you need to put you templates in files with extension `.twig`
(or another one if configured differently).
Also you need to specify this extension explicitly when calling `$this->render()`
or `$this->renderPartial()` from your controller:
```php
echo $this->render('renderer.twig', array('username' => 'Alex'));
```
### Additional functions
Additionally to regular Twig syntax the following is available in Yii:
```php
< a href = "{{ path('blog/view', {'alias' : post.alias}) }}" > {{ post.title }}< / a >
```
path function calls `Html::url()` internally.
### Additional variables
- `app` = `\Yii::$app`
- `this` = current `View` object
Smarty
------
In order to use Smarty you need to put you templates in files with extension `.tpl`
(or another one if configured differently).
Also you need to specify this extension explicitly when calling `$this->render()`
or `$this->renderPartial()` from your controller:
```php
echo $this->render('renderer.tpl', array('username' => 'Alex'));
```
### Additional functions
Additionally to regular Smarty syntax the following is available in Yii:
```php
< a href = "{path route='blog/view' alias=$post.alias}" > {$post.title}< / a >
```
path function calls `Html::url()` internally.
### Additional variables
- `$app` = `\Yii::$app`
- `$this` = current `View` object
