twig inheritance and symfony2 controller variables

Question

Im trying my first project using symfony2 + twig. I created basic twig template with defined blocks. It basically looks like this

{% block content %}
  some content...
{% endblock %}

{% block footer %}
  {{ footer.content}}
{% endblock %}

I want footer to be same for all pages. Footer is loaded from DB and its set in controller. I wanted inherit from template described above to other pages but I have to always set footer in controller otherwise variable is not defined.

My questions is if exists any 'nice' way how to set footer variable for multiple templates inherited from parent template?

Answer 1

The solution : Embedding Controllers

In some cases, you need to do more than include a simple template. Suppose you have a sidebar in your layout that contains the three most recent articles. Retrieving the three articles may include querying the database or performing other heavy logic that can't be done from within a template.

The solution is to simply embed the result of an entire controller from your template. First, create a controller that renders a certain number of recent articles:

Controller

// src/AppBundle/Controller/ArticleController.php
namespace AppBundle\Controller;
// ...

class ArticleController extends Controller
{
    public function recentArticlesAction($max = 3)
    {
        // make a database call or other logic
        // to get the "$max" most recent articles
        $articles = ...;

        return $this->render(
            'article/recent_list.html.twig',
            array('articles' => $articles)
        );
    }
}

View

{# app/Resources/views/article/recent_list.html.twig #}
{% for article in articles %}
    <a href="/article/{{ article.slug }}">
        {{ article.title }}
    </a>
{% endfor %}

Layout

{# app/Resources/views/base.html.twig #}

{# ... #}
<div id="sidebar">
    {{ render(controller(
        'AppBundle:Article:recentArticles',
        { 'max': 3 }
    )) }}
</div>