Latte Helper

An unofficial helper package for rendering Latte templates in Symfony applications.

🚀 Installation

composer require cloudbase/latte-helper

Then add the following to the imports section in your config/services.yaml:

imports:
  - { resource: '../vendor/cloudbase/latte-helper/config/services.yaml' }

You'll also need to add some configuration for your Latte controllers:

services:
  App\Controller\:
    resource: '../src/Controller'
    tags: [ 'controller.service_arguments' ]
    calls:
      - method: setLatteFactory
        arguments:
          - '@CloudBase\LatteHelper\Classes\Latte\LatteEngineFactory'

You don't need to add this for every single controller, this is just a reference to the directory where your controllers are stored. Add this definition for each directory containing Latte controllers. This does however mean that every controller inside that directory is expected to be an extension of AbstractLatteController controller.

🧩 Usage

This package provides an abstract controller to simplify rendering Latte templates in Symfony. To get started, extend AbstractLatteController and use renderTemplate():

class IndexController extends AbstractLatteController
{
    #[Route('/', name: 'app_index')]
    public function index(): Response
    {
        return $this->renderTemplate('index.latte', [
            'appName' => 'Test',
        ]);
    }
}

By default, templates are loaded from your project’s /views directory. You can change this by setting the $templateDir property on your controller.

🏗️ Custom Template Directory

If you use a different directory, it’s recommended to create a base controller that others extend:

class BaseAppController extends AbstractLatteController
{
    // Path relative to your project root
    protected string $templateDir = '/templates/frontend';
}

class AppIndexController extends BaseAppController
{
    #[Route('/', name: 'app_index')]
    public function index(): Response
    {
        // You can omit the .latte suffix if desired
        return $this->renderTemplate('index');
    }
}

The example above renders /templates/frontend/index.latte.

$templateDir should always be relative to your project root.

💡 Template Variables

Every template automatically receives an $app variable - an instance of LatteAwareApplication.

This provides access to some common Symfony features (similar to the app variable in Twig):

{varType CloudBase\LatteHelper\Classes\LatteAwareApplication $app}

<div n:foreach="$app->getFlashes('error') as $error" class="p-4 text-red-500 border-l-2 border-red-500">
    {$error}
</div>

<div n:if="$app->getUser()">
    <!-- User is logged in -->
</div>

<div n:if="$app->getRequestStack()->getCurrentRequest()->isMethod('POST')">
    <!-- Request is a POST request -->
</div>

⚙️ Using $app in Controllers

You can also access the same application instance within your controller:

class IndexController extends AbstractLatteController
{
    #[Route('/', name: 'app_index')]
    public function index(): Response
    {
        $welcomeText = sprintf(
            'Welcome to %s!',
            $this->getApp()->getEnvironmentOption('app_name') ?? 'Your App'
        );
        
        return $this->renderTemplate('index', [
            'text' => $welcomeText,
        ]);
    }
}

🌐 Global Template Data

Need data available across multiple templates?

Override the globalData() method in your base controller:

class BaseAppController extends AbstractLatteController
{
    protected string $templateDir = '/templates/frontend';
    
    protected function globalData(): array
    {
        return array_merge(
            parent::globalData(), // Keeps the $app variable
            [
                'myGlobal' => true,
            ]
        );
    }
}

All controllers inheriting from this class will have access to $myGlobal in addition to $app and local template variables.

🧩 Custom Latte Extensions

To register your own Latte extensions, create a config/latte.php file in your Symfony project.

This file should return an array of class names and their constructor arguments:

<?php

return [
    App\Classes\MyCustomExtension::class => [],
];

This allows you to use custom Latte tags, filters, and functions throughout your templates.