Symfony2: “render” helper for calling an action from a view

Posted on 17 November 2011 by Dinduks

I discovered some days ago a secret Symfony 2's helper. I call it secret because I can't find it anywhere on the documentation.
Edit: Here it is on the Symfony2 book: Embedding Controllers

{% render %} is used to show an action's response in a Twig template. It's very useful when wanting to show a dynamic content in all the app's pages.

Example: Displaying online users' counter.

First of all we have to create a onlineUsersAction() function that fetches, processes the result and returns the counter of the online users.
Then we gotta create a Twig template that displays the response returned by the action. The syntax is the following:
```
{% render "LiveGeekBundle:Default:onlineUsers" %}
```
Knowing that onlineUsersAction() is an action of DefaultController which is a controller from the Live\GeekBundle bundle.
Finally we must include that template in our application's default layout, and thus display the online users' counter in all the app's pages.

Passing arguments:
You can pass arguments to the action this way:

In the Twig template:

{% render "LiveGeekBundle:Default:onlineUsers" with { 'arg1' : 'value1', 'arg2' : 'value2' } %}

In the controller:
```
helloAction($arg1, $arg2)
```
Or
```
helloAction($arg2, $arg1)
```
The arguments' order doesn't matter.

Enjoy. ;)

Posted on 17 November 2011 by Dinduks | Posted in Development, Pieces of code, Symfony 2 | Tagged php, symfony, symfony2, twig

5 Responses to Symfony2: “render” helper for calling an action from a view

niko says:
Very good solution, thanks!
Is there any way to send additional arguments to the function?
22 November 2011 at 20:17
Reply
- Dinduks says:
  Hello,
  Yes it’s possible to send arguments:
  In your template: {% render ‘blabla’ with { ‘arg1′ : ‘value1′, ‘arg2′ : ‘value2′ } %}
  In your controller: helloAction($arg1, $arg2) or helloAction($arg2, $arg1)
  The arguments’ order doesn’t matter.
  I will update the post with this information. :)
  22 November 2011 at 20:45
  Reply
Adam S says:
There is actually a section for embedding controls in the symfony2 book (available electronically on the official site):
http://symfony.com/doc/2.0/book/templating.html#embedding-controllers
Best of luck.
27 November 2011 at 12:25
Reply
- Dinduks says:
  Thanks for you comment.
  I have found this section also only yesterday. I think that it’s hard to find tho, especially that “Embedding Controllers” isn’t a pertinent title imo.
  27 November 2011 at 14:24
  Reply
Mauro says:
I try it but the parameters of the request are always cached, if I pass app.user.id it render always the same page. For example in the layout I have this:
{% render “MyBundle:Controller:Action” with { ‘userId’: app.user.id }, {‘standalone’: true} %}
And always request the first cached page, from debug header:
x-symfony-cache GET /: fresh; GET /_internal/MyBundle:Controller:Action/userId=1.html: fresh
There is a way to not cache the request?
19 April 2012 at 9:33
Reply