twig inheritance and symfony2 controller variables - symfony

Question

Im trying my first project using symfony2 + twig. I created basic twig template with defined blocks. It basically looks like this
{% block content %}
some content...
{% endblock %}
{% block footer %}
{{ footer.content}}
{% endblock %}
I want footer to be same for all pages. Footer is loaded from DB and its set in controller. I wanted inherit from template described above to other pages but I have to always set footer in controller otherwise variable is not defined.
My questions is if exists any 'nice' way how to set footer variable for multiple templates inherited from parent template?

Answer 1

The solution : Embedding Controllers
In some cases, you need to do more than include a simple template.
Suppose you have a sidebar in your layout that contains the three most
recent articles. Retrieving the three articles may include querying
the database or performing other heavy logic that can't be done from
within a template.
The solution is to simply embed the result of an entire controller
from your template. First, create a controller that renders a certain
number of recent articles:
Controller
// src/AppBundle/Controller/ArticleController.php
namespace AppBundle\Controller;
// ...
class ArticleController extends Controller
{
public function recentArticlesAction($max = 3)
{
// make a database call or other logic
// to get the "$max" most recent articles
$articles = ...;
return $this->render(
'article/recent_list.html.twig',
array('articles' => $articles)
);
}
}
View
{# app/Resources/views/article/recent_list.html.twig #}
{% for article in articles %}
<a href="/article/{{ article.slug }}">
{{ article.title }}
</a>
{% endfor %}
Layout
{# app/Resources/views/base.html.twig #}
{# ... #}
<div id="sidebar">
{{ render(controller(
'AppBundle:Article:recentArticles',
{ 'max': 3 }
)) }}
</div>

Answer 2

you can do with one of the following, 'write a custom Twig Extension'
<?php
namespace AppBundle\Extension;
class MyTwigExtension extends \Twig_Extension
{
private $em;
private $conn;
public function __construct(\Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager $em) {
$this->em = $em;
$this->conn = $em->getConnection();
}
public function getFunctions()
{
return array(
'users' => new \Twig_Function_Method($this, 'getUsers'),
);
}
public function getUsers()
{
$sql = "SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY accountname";
return $this->conn->fetchAll($sql);
}
public function getName()
{
return 'smproc4_twig_extension';
}
}
Register an Extension as a Service
services:
my.twig.extension:
class: AppBundle\Extension\MyTwigExtension
tags:
- { name: twig.extension }
arguments:
em: "#doctrine.orm.entity_manager"
Using the custom Extension
Hello {{ name }}!
<ul>
{% for user in users() %}
<li>{{ user.accountname }}</li>
{% endfor %}
</ul>
have a look at the
How to Write a custom Twig Extension
Creating an Extension