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How to Render a Template without a custom Controller

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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:

  • YAML
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    acme_privacy:
    path: /privacy
    defaults:
        _controller: FrameworkBundle:Template:template
        template:    static/privacy.html.twig
  • XML
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    <?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>
  • PHP
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    use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;
use Symfony\Component\Routing\Route;

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

return $collection;

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 Caching the static Template).

  • Twig
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    {{ render(url('acme_privacy')) }}
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    <?php
use Symfony\Component\Routing\Generator\UrlGeneratorInterface;
?>

<!-- The url() method was introduced in Symfony 2.8. Prior to 2.8, you
     had to use generate() with UrlGeneratorInterface::ABSOLUTE_URL
     passed as the third argument. -->
<?php echo $view['actions']->render(
    $view['router']->url('acme_privacy', array())
) ?>

Caching the static Template

Since templates that are rendered in this way are typically static, it might make sense to cache them. Fortunately, this is easy! By configuring a few other variables in your route, you can control exactly how your page is cached:

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    acme_privacy:
    path: /privacy
    defaults:
        _controller:  FrameworkBundle:Template:template
        template:     'static/privacy.html.twig'
        maxAge:       86400
        sharedAge:    86400
  • XML
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    <?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>
  • PHP
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    use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;
use Symfony\Component\Routing\Route;

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

return $collection;

The maxAge and sharedAge values are used to modify the Response object created in the controller. For more information on caching, see HTTP Cache.

There is also a private variable (not shown here). By default, the Response will be made public, as long as maxAge or sharedAge are passed. If set to true, the Response will be marked as private.

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