Master the New Twig Templating Engine for Drupal 8 Theming

Drupal 8 Theming With Twig Free 23

Drupal 8 Theming With Twig Free 23

Drupal is one of the most popular and powerful content management systems (CMS) in the world. It allows you to create and manage any type of website, from blogs and e-commerce sites to social networks and online communities. Drupal is also known for its flexibility and extensibility, as you can customize every aspect of your site with modules, themes, and configuration.

However, Drupal's flexibility also comes with a learning curve. If you want to create your own custom themes for Drupal, you need to learn how to work with PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other web technologies. You also need to understand how Drupal's theming system works, which can be complex and confusing for beginners.

That's why in this article, we are going to introduce you to a new way of theming for Drupal 8: using Twig. Twig is a modern template engine that makes it easier, faster, and more secure to create beautiful and dynamic themes for Drupal 8. We will explain what Twig is, why you should use it for Drupal 8 theming, and how you can use it for Drupal 8 theming. By the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of Drupal 8 theming with Twig free 23.

What is Drupal 8?

Drupal 8 is the latest version of Drupal, released in November 2015. It is a major update that brings many new features and improvements to the CMS. Some of the most notable features of Drupal 8 are:

A modern object-oriented programming (OOP) architecture that makes it easier to develop and maintain code.

A built-in configuration management system that allows you to export and import your site settings across different environments.

A responsive design that adapts to any screen size and device.

A multilingual system that supports over 100 languages out of the box.

A RESTful web services API that enables you to interact with your site data from any application or platform.

A core media library that lets you manage your images, videos, audio files, and other media assets.

A core layout builder that allows you to create custom layouts for your pages using drag-and-drop.

A core content moderation system that enables you to define workflows for publishing and reviewing content.

A core experimental admin theme called Claro that offers a clean and modern user interface.

A core experimental front-end theme called Umami that showcases the power and potential of Drupal 8.

Drupal 8 also comes with many core modules that provide essential functionality for your site, such as Views, Fields, Blocks, Menus, Taxonomy, Search, and more. You can also extend your site with thousands of contributed modules that are available on Drupal.org.

What is Twig?

Twig is a template engine that was created by Fabien Potencier, the creator of Symfony, a PHP framework that Drupal 8 is based on. A template engine is a tool that allows you to separate the presentation layer (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) from the business logic layer (PHP, SQL, etc.) of your web application. This makes it easier to maintain and reuse your code, as well as to collaborate with other developers and designers.

Twig is a modern template engine that offers many advantages over other template engines, such as:

A simple and elegant syntax that is easy to learn and use.

A secure and fast rendering process that prevents cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks and improves performance.

A flexible and extensible system that allows you to create custom functions, filters, tags, and extensions.

A rich set of built-in features that cover common use cases and scenarios.

A large and active community that provides support and documentation.

Twig is used by many popular PHP projects, such as Symfony, Laravel, Craft CMS, Grav CMS, and of course, Drupal 8. Twig is also compatible with other template engines, such as PHP Template, Smarty, and Blade.

Why use Twig for Drupal 8 theming?

Drupal 8 adopted Twig as its default template engine for theming. This means that all the core and contributed themes for Drupal 8 use Twig templates to define the HTML output of your site. You can also create your own custom themes using Twig templates.

There are many reasons why you should use Twig for Drupal 8 theming, such as:

Easy to learn and use

Twig simplifies the syntax and logic of templates. You don't need to write PHP code in your templates anymore. Instead, you can use Twig's simple and expressive syntax to write HTML code with placeholders, variables, expressions, filters, functions, tags, and control structures. For example:

<h1> title </h1> content <ul> % for item in items % <li> item.name </li> % endfor % </ul>

This makes it easier to read and write templates, as well as to debug and troubleshoot them. You can also use Twig's built-in features to format and manipulate data and output in various ways. For example:

upper capitalize ! date('Y-m-d') price

This makes it easier to create consistent and dynamic themes for your site.

Secure and fast

Twig prevents XSS attacks by automatically escaping all the variables and expressions in your templates. This means that any malicious code or script that is injected into your site data will not be executed in your browser. Instead, it will be displayed as plain text. For example:

'<script>alert(\"Hello\");</script>'

This will output:

&lt;script&gt;alert(\"Hello\");&lt;/script&gt;

This makes it safer to display user-generated content on your site. You can also disable the auto-escaping feature for certain variables or expressions if you need to output raw HTML code. For example:

raw

This will output the HTML code as it is.

Twig also improves the performance of your site by compiling your templates into PHP code and caching them on the server. This means that your templates are only parsed once when they are first requested, and then they are served from the cache for subsequent requests. This reduces the server load and the response time of your site.

How to use Twig for Drupal 8 theming?

Now that you know what Twig is and why you should use it for Drupal 8 theming, let's see how you can use it for Drupal 8 theming. Here are the steps and best practices of using Twig for Drupal 8 theming:

Install and enable Twig

Twig is already included in Drupal 8 core, so you don't need to install it separately. However, you do need to enable it on your Drupal 8 site. To do that, you need to edit your settings.php file and add the following line:

$settings['twig_debug'] = TRUE;

This will enable Twig debugging mode, which will help you to see the available variables and templates in your site. You can also enable Twig caching and auto-reload mode by adding the following lines:

$settings['twig_config']['cache'] = TRUE; $settings['twig_config']['auto_reload'] = TRUE;

This will improve the performance and development experience of your site. You can also tweak other Twig settings according to your needs. For more information, see Twig configuration.

Create and edit Twig templates

Twig templates are files that end with .html.twig extension. They are stored in your theme folder, usually under templates subfolder. You can create your own custom Twig templates for different types of content on your site, such as nodes, blocks, views, fields, forms, menus, etc. You can also override the default Twig templates that come with Drupal 8 core or contributed modules.

To create a custom Twig template, you need to follow the naming conventions and suggestions that Drupal 8 provides. For example, if you want to create a custom template for a node of article content type, you can name it node--article.html.twig. If you want to create a custom template for a block with id 1, you can name it block--block-1.html.twig. You can also use more specific names to target specific conditions or contexts. For example, if you want to create a custom template for a node of article content type only when it is displayed as a teaser, you can name it node--article--teaser.html.twig.

To edit a Twig template, you can use any text editor or IDE that supports Twig syntax highlighting and code completion. You can also use tools like Twig Tweak or Twig Field Value to simplify and enhance your Twig code.

Use Twig variables and expressions

Twig variables are placeholders that store data and values that you can use in your templates. They are usually enclosed in double curly braces . For example:

<h1> title </h1> content

This will output the title and content of the current node.

Twig expressions are combinations of variables, operators, literals, filters, functions, and parentheses that evaluate to a single value. They are also enclosed in double curly braces . For example:

(node.field_rating.value * 100) / 5 %

This will output the percentage value of the rating field of the current node.

You can use Twig variables and expressions to display dynamic data from your site in your templates. You can also use them to perform calculations and comparisons on your data. To see the available variables and expressions in your site, you can use the dump() function or the devel module.

Use Twig filters and functions

Twig filters are modifiers that apply transformations or operations on variables or expressions. They are separated by a pipe symbol from the variable or expression they modify. For example:

upper date price

This will output the title in uppercase, the date in YYYY-MM-DD format, and the price with two decimal places.

Twig functions are keywords that return values or perform actions. They are followed by parentheses () that may contain arguments. For example:

range(1, 10) random(['apple', 'banana', 'orange']) url('node/1')

This will output a range of numbers from 1 to 10, a random fruit from the array, and the URL of node 1.

You can use Twig filters and functions to modify and manipulate data and output in various ways. You can also create your own custom filters and functions using Twig extensions. To see the available filters and functions in your site, you can use the dump() function or the devel module.

Use Twig tags and control structures

Twig tags are keywords that define the logic and flow of your templates. They are enclosed in curly braces and percent signs % %. For example:

% if condition % This is true. % else % This is false. % endif %

This will output \"This is true.\" if the condition is true, or \"This is false.\" if the condition is false.

Twig control structures are combinations of tags that create loops or branches in your templates. They are also enclosed in curly braces and percent signs % %. For example:

% for item in items % <li> item.name </li> % endfor %

This will output a list of items with their names.

You can use Twig tags and control structures to add logic and flow to your templates. You can also use them to include or extend other templates. To see the available tags and control structures in your site, you can use the dump() function or the devel module.

Use Twig extensions and plugins

Twig extensions are PHP classes that add more functionality and customization to Twig. They can define new filters, functions, tags, operators, tests, globals, and more. For example, the Twig Extensions module provides several common Twig extensions, such as Text, Array, Date, Intl, etc.

Twig plugins are Drupal modules that integrate with Twig and provide more features and options for theming. For example, the Twig Tweak module provides a collection of useful Twig filters and functions that simplify theming tasks, such as rendering entities, fields, menus, views, blocks, forms, etc.

You can use Twig extensions and plugins to enhance your theming experience and capabilities. You can also create your own custom extensions and plugins using PHP code.

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned about Drupal 8 theming with Twig free 23. We have seen what Drupal 8 and Twig are, why we should use Twig for Drupal 8 theming, and how we can use Twig for Drupal 8 theming. We have also covered some of the basic concepts and features of Twig, such as variables, expressions, filters, functions, tags, control structures, extensions, and plugins.

Drupal 8 theming with Twig free 23 is a great way to create beautiful and dynamic themes for your Drupal 8 site. It is easy to learn and use, secure and fast, flexible and extensible. It also offers a rich set of built-in features and a large and active community that supports it.

If you want to learn more about Drupal 8 theming with Twig free 23, you can check out the following resources:

Twig in Drupal

Twig Documentation

Discovering and inspecting variables in Twig templates

FAQs

What is Drupal 8?Drupal 8 is the latest version of Drupal, a popular and powerful content management system (CMS) that allows you to create and manage any type of website.

What is Twig?Twig is a modern template engine that makes it easier, faster, and more secure to create themes for Drupal 8.

Why use Twig for Drupal 8 theming?Twig simplifies the syntax and logic of templates, prevents XSS attacks, improves performance, and allows custom functions, filters, tags, and extensions.

How to use Twig for Drupal 8 theming?You need to enable Twig on your Drupal 8 site, create and edit Twig templates, use Twig variables and expressions, use Twig filters and functions, use Twig tags and control structures, and use Twig extensions and plugins.

Where can I learn more about Drupal 8 theming with Twig free 23?You can check out the resources listed in the conclusion section of this article.