Using Twig in Drupal Templates

Twig is the default template engine for Drupal. If you want to make changes to the markup that Drupal outputs you're going to need to know at least some Twig. In this tutorial, we will outline the role that Twig now plays in Drupal, how Twig impacts the theming experience, and where to find additional resources for learning Twig.

At the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:

• Describe the role that Twig plays in creating Drupal themes
• Explain how Twig impacts the theming experience in Drupal
• Locate additional resources for learning Twig

To read a Twig template file, you'll need to recognize Twig's syntax delimiters. Twig has three syntax delimiters: one for printing out variables, another for performing actions or logic, and lastly, one for comments, also used for docblocks.

In this tutorial we'll:

• Explore each of Twig's 3 syntax delimiters.
• Show examples of each from Drupal's core template files.

By the end of this tutorial you should be able to recognize each of Twig's syntax delimiters and understand what the engine will do when it encounters them.

Twig has a special syntax for accessing array keys and objects, also known in Twig as variable attributes. In this tutorial, we'll cover the period or dot (.) operator to access a variable attribute, as well as subscript or square-bracket syntax, useful for when the key of the array contains special characters, like a dash (-) or pound sign (#). We'll also look at the logic Twig uses to find the matching attribute in an array or object.

Many of the variables that you have access to inside of a Twig template file are arrays. For example a list of values for a multi-value field, or a set of error messages generated when validating a form submission. In order to work with arrays in Twig you'll need to understand how for loops work. This is essential information for anyone creating Drupal themes.

In this tutorial we'll cover:

• Using the for tag to iterate over an array
• Using the loop variable inside of a for loop for additional context

The ability to loop over an array of values in a Twig template and print out each value individually is an important skill for anyone developing themes for Drupal. Common scenarios include: loop over the values of a multiple value field; iterate through a list of links; and display error messages at the top of forms. This tutorial will provide an example of using the Twig for function to iterate over a list, or a subset of a list.

In this tutorial we'll cover how to:

• Output values from a multi-value field in an unordered list.
• Add first and last classes to the first and last items in a list by using the Twig loop variable.

By the end of this tutorial you should be able to print out the values of an array as individual list items using a loop in Twig.

In Twig, you can modify variables using functions or filters. Twig has a bunch of built-in functions and filters. Drupal extends Twig to provide a few handy Drupal-specific functions and filters as well.

In this tutorial, we'll look at:

• What are functions and filters?
• How to use functions and filters in Twig
• Detailed information about the Drupal-specific functions and filters and their use case

Do you cringe at the sight of untidy whitespace or (gasp) no whitespace at all when you View Source? Learn how to tame whitespace in Twig template files in this tutorial. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to recognize how Twig controls whitespace and how you can do the same in your Drupal template files.

Theme developers often need to add or remove classes and other attributes from an HTML tag. Template files handle this with a special Attributes object that contains the attributes and their values, as well as a handful of powerful methods to help manage these attributes.

In this tutorial we’ll cover:

• Adding/removing classes from elements in a Twig template
• The attributes object
• Examples of common tasks using various helper methods on the attributes object

If you want to create a link to an internal page in a Twig template--and there's not already a variable in the template that contains the URL you want to link to--you'll need to determine the route of the thing you want to link to and then use the Twig url() or path() functions to generate appropriate URLs. In most cases when you want to create a link to an entity that is being output by the current template there's an existing helper variable to use. For example, in a node.html.twig template file there's a url variable that points to the current node. For other scenarios, like hard-coding a link to the /about page, you'll need to do a little more work.

In this tutorial, we'll:

• Get the absolute URL value
• Get the relative path value
• Generate HTML for a link
• Get the URI to a file, like an image in the Media library
• Get the active theme path

By the end of this tutorial you should be able to create links to any internal page via Twig.

More often than not, templates in a theme share common elements: the header, footer, sidebar, or more. In Drupal, themes created with a Twig template can be decorated by another one. This template inheritance allows you to build a base "layout" template that contains all the common elements of your layout defined as blocks. A child template can extend the base layout and override any of its defined blocks. This helps prevent code duplication, and keeps your theme more organized.

This tutorial is for theme developers who want to reduce code duplication in their themes, or anyone seeking to better understand how Twig template inheritance works. We'll cover:

• What the Twig block and extends tags do
• An example use-case for template inheritance
• How to extend a Twig template from another theme or module
• How to include other Twig templates