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:

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

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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>

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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 How to Render a Template without a custom Controller).

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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())
) ?>

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

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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>

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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;