IntelliJ IDEA 2022.3 Help

Twig Templates

Besides the common templates support, the Symfony Plugin provides completion, navigation and code inspection specific to the Twig templating language.

Install the required plugins

This functionality relies on the PHP, Symfony Support, and PHP Annotations plugins that should be installed and enabled in your IDE.

The plugins are available only in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Plugins.

  2. Switch to the Marketplace tab and use the search field to find the plugins.

  3. Click Install next to each plugin and restart the IDE if prompted.

Code completion in Twig templates

In the editor, press Ctrl+Space to invoke code completion and do any of the following:

  • Provide Templates and Blocks for appropriate functions in any TWIG file.

    Name completion in Twig template

  • Provide Extensions, Filters and Macros, both self-defined or installed from a third party.

    Extension completion in Twig template

  • Provide individual assets and full bundles.

    Asset name completion in Twig template

Code navigation in Twig templates

To navigate to the declaration of a template, block, extension, filter, macro, or asset, position the caret at its usage and press Ctrl+B. Alternatively, Ctrl+Click the usage.

Navigate to Extension in Twig template

Code inspection in Twig templates

If we refer an asset that is not known to the application (for example, if the asset does not exist yet), IntelliJ IDEA displays the corresponding warning from the Missing Asset inspection. .

Missing Twig Asset inspection

Work with Twig variables

In a Twig template, you can define variables using the {# variable_name variable_value #} syntax, for example:

{# name John #}

As soon as a variable is defined, code completion (Ctrl+Space) and navigating to declaration (Ctrl+B) for it become available.

In a similar manner, you can define a controller that uses the template by adding a controller annotation, for example:

{# @controller BloggerBlogBundle:Home:index #}

Once we do this, IntelliJ IDEA will provide code completion and navigation for all variables passed into the template.

Twig variable name completion

Language injection in Twig templates

When working with Twig templates, you can inject code fragments inside the template blocks. IntelliJ IDEA will provide you with comprehensive language assistance for editing that code fragment.

  1. Place the caret inside a template block, in which you want to inject a language and press Alt+Enter, or click the Intention action button.

  2. Select Inject language or reference and choose the language you want to inject from the popup menu.

Inject JavaScript into a Twig template block automatically

IntelliJ IDEA can automatically inject code into Twig template blocks based on the defined injection rules. Out of the box, the rules for automatically injecting JavaScript code are available.

  • In a Twig template, do any of the following:

    • Add a block named javascript as follows:

      {% block javascript %} //injected JavaScript code {% endblock %}

    • Add a custom script block as follows:

      {% script %} //injected JavaScript code {% endscript %}

    IntelliJ IDEA will automatically inject JavaScript into the template blocks.

    Automatically inject JavaScript code in Twig a template

Customize Twig syntax

In some cases it may be necessary to customize the Twig syntax. This can be useful, for example, to avoid collision with other template languages such as AngularJS.

  1. In your code, customize the Twig syntax as described in the Twig documentation.

  2. Make the corresponding adjustments in IntelliJ IDEA so that it can recognize this syntax properly.

    In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), go to Languages & Frameworks | PHP | Twig and type the desired values to be used for the Tag, Comment, and Variable blocks.

    Custom Twig Syntax

Debug Twig templates

You can debug Twig templates using the same techniques as for regular PHP files.

Before you start, make sure that the following Twig environment options are set:

debug: true auto_reload: true

Enable Twig debugging

  1. In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), go to Languages & Frameworks | PHP | Debug | Templates and expand the Twig Debug area.

  2. In the Cache path field, provide the absolute path to the Twig compiled templates cache folder. Type the path manually or click the Browse button and select the relevant folder in the dialog that opens. By default, compiled Twig templates are stored in the var/cache/{environment}/twig folder inside your project, where {environment} designates your configuration environment such as dev or prod.

Start a debugging session

Start a debugging session as described in the Ultimate debugging guide. The easiest and recommended approach is to use Zero-configuration debugging:

  1. Choose and install the browser extension suitable for your browser.

  2. On the IntelliJ IDEA toolbar, toggle the Start Listening for PHP Debug Connections button to start listening for incoming PHP debug connections, or choose Run | Start Listening for PHP Debug Connections from the main menu.

  3. Set a breakpoint in your code.

  4. Start the debugging session in the browser using the installed browser extension.

  5. During a debugging session, examine the program state: see variable values, evaluate expressions, step through the program, and so on.

During a debugging session, IntelliJ IDEA will warn you in case the template breakpoint is not reachable, which happens when a template line is not mapped to any line in a compiled PHP file.

Unreachable breakpoint in a Twig template
Last modified: 01 August 2022
Symfony Templates Service Container