StimulusBundle: Symfony integration with Stimulus

TypeScript Controllers

If you want to use TypeScript to define your controllers, you can! Install and set up the sensiolabs/typescript-bundle. Then be sure to add the assets/controllers path to the sensiolabs_typescript.source_dir configuration. Finally, create your controller in that directory and you're good to go.

The UX Packages

Symfony provides a set of UX packages that add extra Stimulus controllers to solve common problems. StimulusBundle activates any 3rd party Stimulus controllers that are mentioned in your assets/controllers.json file. This file is updated whenever you install a UX package.

The official UX packages are:

• ux-autocomplete: Transform EntityType, ChoiceType or any <select> element into an Ajax-powered autocomplete field (see demo)
• ux-chartjs: Easy charts with Chart.js (see demo)
• ux-cropperjs: Form Type and tools for cropping images (see demo)
• ux-dropzone: Form Type for stylized "drop zone" for file uploads (see demo)
• ux-lazy-image: Optimize Image Loading with BlurHash (see demo)
• ux-live-component: Build Dynamic Interfaces with Zero JavaScript (see demo)
• ux-notify: Send server-sent native notification with Mercure (see demo)
• ux-react: Render React component from Twig (see demo)
• ux-svelte: Render Svelte component from Twig (see demo)
• ux-swup: Integration with Swup (see demo)
• ux-toggle-password: Toggle visibility of password inputs (see demo)
• ux-translator: Use your Symfony translations in JavaScript (see demo)
• ux-turbo: Integration with Turbo Drive for a single-page-app experience (see demo)
• ux-twig-component: Build Twig Components Backed by a PHP Class (see demo)
• ux-typed: Integration with Typed (see demo)
• ux-vue: Render Vue component from Twig (see demo)

Lazy Stimulus Controllers

By default, all of your controllers (i.e. files in assets/controllers/ + controllers in assets/controllers.json) will be downloaded and loaded on every page.

Sometimes you may have a controller that's only used on some pages. In that case, you can make the controller "lazy". In this case, will not be downloaded on initial page load. Instead, as soon as an element appears on the page matching the controller (e.g. <div data-controller="hello">), the controller - and anything else it imports - will be lazily-loaded via Ajax.

To make one of your custom controllers lazy, add a special comment on top:

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import { Controller } from '@hotwired/stimulus';

/* stimulusFetch: 'lazy' */
export default class extends Controller {
    // ...
}

To make a third-party controller lazy, in assets/controllers.json, set fetch to lazy.

stimulus_controller

This bundle ships with a special stimulus_controller() Twig function that can be used to render Stimulus Controllers & Values and CSS Classes. Stimulus Controllers can also reference other controllers by using Outlets.

For example:

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<div {{ stimulus_controller('chart', { 'name': 'Likes', 'data': [1, 2, 3, 4] }) }}>
    Hello
</div>

<!-- would render -->
<div
   data-controller="chart"
   data-chart-name-value="Likes"
   data-chart-data-value="&#x5B;1,2,3,4&#x5D;"
>
   Hello
</div>

If you want to set CSS classes:

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<div {{ stimulus_controller('chart', { 'name': 'Likes', 'data': [1, 2, 3, 4] }, { 'loading': 'spinner' }) }}>
    Hello
</div>

<!-- would render -->
<div
   data-controller="chart"
   data-chart-name-value="Likes"
   data-chart-data-value="&#x5B;1,2,3,4&#x5D;"
   data-chart-loading-class="spinner"
>
   Hello
</div>

<!-- or without values -->
<div {{ stimulus_controller('chart', controllerClasses = { 'loading': 'spinner' }) }}>
    Hello
</div>

And with outlets:

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<div {{ stimulus_controller('chart', { 'name': 'Likes', 'data': [1, 2, 3, 4] }, { 'loading': 'spinner' }, { 'other': '.target' ) }}>
    Hello
</div>

<!-- would render -->
<div
   data-controller="chart"
   data-chart-name-value="Likes"
   data-chart-data-value="&#x5B;1,2,3,4&#x5D;"
   data-chart-loading-class="spinner"
   data-chart-other-outlet=".target"
>
   Hello
</div>

<!-- or without values/classes -->
<div {{ stimulus_controller('chart', controllerOutlets = { 'other': '.target' }) }}>
    Hello
</div>

Any non-scalar values (like data: [1, 2, 3, 4]) are JSON-encoded. And all values are properly escaped (the string [ is an escaped [ character, so the attribute is really [1,2,3,4]).

If you have multiple controllers on the same element, you can chain them as there's also a stimulus_controller filter:

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<div {{ stimulus_controller('chart', { 'name': 'Likes' })|stimulus_controller('other-controller') }}>
    Hello
</div>

<!-- would render -->
<div data-controller="chart other-controller" data-chart-name-value="Likes">
    Hello
</div>

You can also retrieve the generated attributes as an array, which can be helpful e.g. for forms:

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{{ form_start(form, { attr: stimulus_controller('chart', { 'name': 'Likes' }).toArray() }) }}

stimulus_action

The stimulus_action() Twig function can be used to render Stimulus Actions.

For example:

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<div {{ stimulus_action('controller', 'method') }}>Hello</div>
<div {{ stimulus_action('controller', 'method', 'click') }}>Hello</div>

<!-- would render -->
<div data-action="controller#method">Hello</div>
<div data-action="click->controller#method">Hello</div>

If you have multiple actions and/or methods on the same element, you can chain them as there's also a stimulus_action filter:

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<div {{ stimulus_action('controller', 'method')|stimulus_action('other-controller', 'test') }}>
    Hello
</div>

<!-- would render -->
<div data-action="controller#method other-controller#test">
    Hello
</div>

You can also retrieve the generated attributes as an array, which can be helpful e.g. for forms:

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{{ form_row(form.password, { attr: stimulus_action('hello-controller', 'checkPasswordStrength').toArray() }) }}

You can also pass parameters to actions:

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<div {{ stimulus_action('hello-controller', 'method', 'click', { 'count': 3 }) }}>Hello</div>

<!-- would render -->
<div data-action="click->hello-controller#method" data-hello-controller-count-param="3">Hello</div>

stimulus_target

The stimulus_target() Twig function can be used to render Stimulus Targets.

For example:

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<div {{ stimulus_target('controller', 'myTarget') }}>Hello</div>
<div {{ stimulus_target('controller', 'myTarget secondTarget') }}>Hello</div>

<!-- would render -->
<div data-controller-target="myTarget">Hello</div>
<div data-controller-target="myTarget secondTarget">Hello</div>

If you have multiple targets on the same element, you can chain them as there's also a stimulus_target filter:

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<div {{ stimulus_target('controller', 'myTarget')|stimulus_target('other-controller', 'anotherTarget') }}>
    Hello
</div>

<!-- would render -->
<div data-controller-target="myTarget" data-other-controller-target="anotherTarget">
    Hello
</div>

You can also retrieve the generated attributes as an array, which can be helpful e.g. for forms:

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{{ form_row(form.password, { attr: stimulus_target('hello-controller', 'myTarget').toArray() }) }}

With AssetMapper

If you're using AssetMapper, two new entries will be added to your importmap.php file:

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// importmap.php
return [
    // ...

    '@symfony/stimulus-bundle' => [
        'path' => '@symfony/stimulus-bundle/loader.js',
    ],
    '@hotwired/stimulus' => [
        'version' => '3.2.2',
    ],
];

The recipe will update your assets/bootstrap.js file to look like this:

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// assets/bootstrap.js
import { startStimulusApp } from '@symfony/stimulus-bundle';

const app = startStimulusApp();

The @symfony/stimulus-bundle refers the one of the new entries in your importmap.php file. This file is dynamically built by the bundle and will import all your custom controllers as well as those from controllers.json. It will also dynamically enable "debug" mode in Stimulus when your application is running in debug mode.

With WebpackEncoreBundle

If you're using Webpack Encore, the recipe will also update your webpack.config.js file to include this line:

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// webpack.config.js
.enableStimulusBridge('./assets/controllers.json')

The assets/bootstrap.js file will be updated to look like this:

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// assets/bootstrap.js
import { startStimulusApp } from '@symfony/stimulus-bridge';

// Registers Stimulus controllers from controllers.json and in the controllers/ directory
export const app = startStimulusApp(require.context(
    '@symfony/stimulus-bridge/lazy-controller-loader!./controllers',
    true,
    /\.[jt]sx?$/
));

And 2 new packages - @hotwired/stimulus and @symfony/stimulus-bridge - will be added to your package.json file.