How to Render a Template without a custom Controller

Usually, when you need to create a page, you need to create a controller and render a template from within that controller. But if you're rendering a simple template that doesn't need any data passed into it, you can avoid creating the controller entirely, by using the built-in FrameworkBundle:Template:template controller.

For example, suppose you want to render a static/privacy.html.twig template, which doesn't require that any variables are passed to it. You can do this without creating a controller:

1
2
3
4
5

acme_privacy:
    path: /privacy
    defaults:
        _controller: FrameworkBundle:Template:template
        template:    static/privacy.html.twig

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing http://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd">

    <route id="acme_privacy" path="/privacy">
        <default key="_controller">FrameworkBundle:Template:template</default>
        <default key="template">static/privacy.html.twig</default>
    </route>
</routes>

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;
use Symfony\Component\Routing\Route;

$routes = new RouteCollection();
$routes->add('acme_privacy', new Route('/privacy', array(
    '_controller' => 'FrameworkBundle:Template:template',
    'template'    => 'static/privacy.html.twig',
)));

return $routes;

The FrameworkBundle:Template:template controller will simply render whatever template you've passed as the template default value.

You can of course also use this trick when rendering embedded controllers from within a template. But since the purpose of rendering a controller from within a template is typically to prepare some data in a custom controller, this is probably only useful if you'd like to cache this page partial (see How to Render a Template without a custom Controller).

1

{{ render(url('acme_privacy')) }}

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

acme_privacy:
    path: /privacy
    defaults:
        _controller:  FrameworkBundle:Template:template
        template:     'static/privacy.html.twig'
        maxAge:       86400
        sharedAge:    86400

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing http://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd">

    <route id="acme_privacy" path="/privacy">
        <default key="_controller">FrameworkBundle:Template:template</default>
        <default key="template">static/privacy.html.twig</default>
        <default key="maxAge">86400</default>
        <default key="sharedAge">86400</default>
    </route>
</routes>

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;
use Symfony\Component\Routing\Route;

$routes = new RouteCollection();
$routes->add('acme_privacy', new Route('/privacy', array(
    '_controller' => 'FrameworkBundle:Template:template',
    'template'    => 'static/privacy.html.twig',
    'maxAge'      => 86400,
    'sharedAge'   => 86400,
)));

return $routes;