Getting Started

Creating a View

Fluid comes with a bunch of PHP classes that allow you to open Fluid template files, assign variables to them and then render them to get the desired result. To get started, you need to be aware of TemplateView, the RenderingContext and TemplatePaths.

• The TemplateView is the "view part" in the Model-View-Controller pattern. It is the main API between your PHP application and the template file. Each TemplateView renders exactly one template file (which can have a layout file and can also include other templates, called partials).
• The RenderingContext is kind of self-describing: It contains all context necessary to render the template. At first, you might only use it to define the path to your Fluid template file via ...
• TemplatePaths, which is usually a sub-object of the rendering context. It provides multiple ways to define the location(s) to your template files.

To render a template file called MyTemplate.html, which is located in /path/to/templates/, you first create a TemplateView object:

$view = new \TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\View\TemplateView();

Then you can access the TemplatePaths and provide the location to your template file, for example like this:

$view->getRenderingContext()->getTemplatePaths()->setTemplateRootPaths(['/path/to/templates/']);

Finally, you can render the desired template:

$view->render('MyTemplate');

By default, .html is used as file extension. If you want to change this, you can specify a different format in TemplatePaths:

$view->getRenderingContext()->getTemplatePaths()->setFormat('xml');
$view->render('MyTemplate');

Which would then render MyTemplate.xml.

Assigning Variables

To be able to access data available in your PHP script, you need to assign that data to your view as a variable:

$myData = obtainMyDataFromSomewhere();
$view->assign('myData', $myData);

You can also assign multiple variables at once:

$view->assignMultiple([
    'title' => $myTitle,
    'description' => $myDescription,
]);

Those variables can then be accessed in your template file:

<h1>{title}</h1>
<p>{description}</p>

See also the dedicated chapter about Variables.

Using ViewHelpers

Within Fluid templates, it is possible to use some controll structures to implement simple logic. It is also possible to perform some data modification. Both is possible by using so-called ViewHelpers.

With the <f:if> ViewHelper, you can implement simple if-then-else logic, for example:

<f:if condition="{title}">
    <f:then>
        <h1>{title}</h1>
    </f:then>
    <f:else>
        <h1>Default Title</h1>
    </f:else>
</f:if>

With the <f:format.case> ViewHelper you can convert a variable to uppercase or lowercase letters:

<h1><f:format.case mode="upper">{title}</f:format.case></h1>

Which would result in an all-uppercase headline.

See also the dedicated chapter about ViewHelpers as well as the ViewHelper reference for more details.

Inspecting and Debugging Templates

If you encounter a problem in your template or you just want to know what data is available, you can use the <f:debug> ViewHelper:

<f:debug>{myVariable}</f:debug>

If you want to get an overview of all available variables, you can use the special variable {_all}:

<f:debug>{_all}</f:debug>