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How to write a custom Twig Extension

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How to write a custom Twig Extension

The main motivation for writing an extension is to move often used code into a reusable class like adding support for internationalization. An extension can define tags, filters, tests, operators, global variables, functions, and node visitors.

Creating an extension also makes for a better separation of code that is executed at compilation time and code needed at runtime. As such, it makes your code faster.

Tip

Before writing your own extensions, have a look at the Twig official extension repository.

Create the Extension Class

To get your custom functionality you must first create a Twig Extension class. As an example you’ll create a price filter to format a given number into price:

// src/Acme/DemoBundle/Twig/AcmeExtension.php
namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Twig;

class AcmeExtension extends \Twig_Extension
{
    public function getFilters()
    {
        return array(
            'price' => new \Twig_Filter_Method($this, 'priceFilter'),
        );
    }

    public function priceFilter($number, $decimals = 0, $decPoint = '.', $thousandsSep = ',')
    {
        $price = number_format($number, $decimals, $decPoint, $thousandsSep);
        $price = '$' . $price;

        return $price;
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return 'acme_extension';
    }
}

Tip

Along with custom filters, you can also add custom functions and register global variables.

Register an Extension as a Service

Now you must let the Service Container know about your newly created Twig Extension:

  • YAML
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    # src/Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/config/services.yml
services:
    acme.twig.acme_extension:
        class: Acme\DemoBundle\Twig\AcmeExtension
        tags:
            - { name: twig.extension }
  • XML
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    <!-- src/Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/config/services.xml -->
<services>
    <service id="acme.twig.acme_extension" class="Acme\DemoBundle\Twig\AcmeExtension">
        <tag name="twig.extension" />
    </service>
</services>
  • PHP
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    // src/Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/config/services.php
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Definition;

$acmeDefinition = new Definition('\Acme\DemoBundle\Twig\AcmeExtension');
$acmeDefinition->addTag('twig.extension');
$container->setDefinition('acme.twig.acme_extension', $acmeDefinition);

Note

Keep in mind that Twig Extensions are not lazily loaded. This means that there’s a higher chance that you’ll get a CircularReferenceException or a ScopeWideningInjectionException if any services (or your Twig Extension in this case) are dependent on the request service. For more information take a look at How to work with Scopes.

Using the custom Extension

Using your newly created Twig Extension is no different than any other:

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{# outputs $5,500.00 #}
{{ '5500'|price }}

Passing other arguments to your filter:

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{# outputs $5500,2516 #}
{{ '5500.25155'|price(4, ',', '') }}

Learning further

For a more in-depth look into Twig Extensions, please take a look at the Twig extensions documentation.

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.