Twig & PHP Templating in Drupal 11

Welcome here! This is your complete guide to Twig and PHP templating in Drupal 11. As you understand,  Twig and PHP are important for the frontend and backend development in Drupal. If you know how they work, you can create beautiful, effective, and easy-to-maintain websites. 
Today, Golems Drupal company explores Twig's smooth template engine and PHP's strong backend logic. Our blog will be helpful for every kind of person, whether you are a skilled Drupal developer, someone who owns a website or business owner, or simply starting your path in this field. We will dive into the details of Twig and PHP in Drupal to help you better understand how they work together so that your digital experiences can be crafted more effectively.

Introduction to Twig Template

Twig is a new yet strong templating engine that began operating in 2010. Interestingly, it has garnered support from a broad range of web development frameworks, including Symfony and Drupal. 2019 investigation by WhiteHat Security discovered that XSS vulnerabilities were common in PHP themes that employed the template technique. Drupal 11 handles this by default by including a function that automatically escapes variables. But how could a theme development tool be the right tool to drive organic traffic?
The switch from PHPTemplate to Twig in Drupal 8 (and subsequently in Drupal 11) has huge benefits in terms of UI/UX, code structure, and the construction of SEO-friendly themes. Twig offers a revolution for experienced Drupal developers. Here's why:

• With the debut of Twig in Drupal 8, the theming has changed. Twig ushered in a new era of safe and robust theming. Twig's widespread recognition in the Drupal community reflects their trust and appreciation for it. Skilled developers no longer have to deal with the complex tangle of PHP syntax. Instead, they replace the code with natural, easy syntax, making it easier to design themes.
• Twig promotes easy-to-read and succinct code, which facilitates cooperation across development teams. Twig's concept of separation of concerns improves maintainability. Developers may quickly tweak and update the templates without worrying about system problems.
• The Twig template has a robust inheritance system, filters, and functions to help you create dynamic and interesting websites. Twig, with its HTML-like syntax, bridges the gap between designers and developers, resulting in a synchronized and innovative theme creation approach.

Leveraging PHP Templating in Drupal 11

Like Twig, there is still a thing called PHP templating that goes well beyond Drupal 11.

• PHP's Role. Consider the theme engine. It operates at the level of complicated business logic and data preparation, storing all relevant information in the Drupal database. Functions like preprocessing utilize PHP to prepare data before rendering it using Twig.
• Twig vs PHP. When Twig excels in template rendering but is quite different when it comes to raw PHP code, we realize this well. For instance, PHP is best for handling complex data arrays or linking with external libraries.

PHP is still the preferred language for theming, even though it is not the most popular. It is often required to apply hardware description language in the same case, particularly when we deal with complex logic. In the case of Drupal 11, PHP Twig templating blends in intrinsically complex themes that create a dynamism that results in a better and more efficient UX.

What is the difference between PHP and Twig?

Area	Twig Strengths	Twig Weaknesses	PHP Strengths	PHP Weaknesses
Separation of Concerns	Enforces clean separation and improves maintainability	Limited logic capabilities within templates	Can define logic within templates but blurs separation	Logic in templates can be difficult to maintain
Security	Escapes variables by default, reduces XSS risk	Requires manual sanitization of user input	Offers sanitization functions, but requires implementation	Improper implementation can introduce vulnerabilities
Flexibility & Power	Rich set of filters and functions for data manipulation	Functionality might be limited compared to raw PHP	Full access to PHP language for complex logic	Complex code within templates can be difficult to manage
Readability & Maintainability	Clear and concise syntax	Complex logic can become cumbersome	Can be clear and maintainable, but requires discipline	Complex logic can reduce readability
Learning Curve	Relatively simple syntax	Full power of PHP can be daunting	Vast amount of learning resources available	Learning curve still exists

 

Projects that need to be tightly integrated with Drupal's rendering pipeline or use complex preprocess logic may find the PHP templating approach advantageous because it allows direct access to Drupal's APIs. Developers who work on legacy projects towards Drupal 11 can still rely on the comfort of their previous PHP-based templates when the extra transition with the Twig mixture seems overwhelming.

 

Best Practices for Twig & PHP Templating

PHP in Drupal relies primarily on powering the backend functionality and dynamic content production of websites, providing smooth user interactions and strong performance. Twig and PHP technology, when used in SEO optimization, can impact how a website ranks on search engines. 

1. Use Twig's many capabilities to write structured and luminous source code that is search engine-friendly.
2. Twig is the core module that helps search engines understand and index the content of written material.
3. Design your cache strategy using Twig's intelligent caching technique and PHP templating's performance optimizations to obtain the fastest page load times and thus improve your SEO ranking considerably.

Twig and PHP templating are perfect for identifying templating when considering an SEO framework for Drupal. How can you take them beyond the basics and help them reach their full potential?
Drupal, Twig, and PHP integrate seamlessly to create a system that provides personalized content rendering, which is a new level of website personalization. You can build websites that are not only visually attractive but also precise in achieving your set goals for each visitor.
Drupal 11's theming system, which is powered by Twig and PHP, enables you to customize your website. 

• Look & Feel (Twig). Change the design premise and construct the components using renewable resources. 
• Functionality (PHP). Create a specialized theme with hooks and modules for website behavior. 

Common issues in Twig and PHP templates

While Twig and PHP offer a powerful combination for Drupal 11 theming, there are potential issues to be aware of:

Twig Issues	PHP Issues
While Twig offers filters and functions, the complex logic within templates can become cumbersome. This can lead to messy and difficult-to-maintain code.	Embedding complex logic directly within PHP templates can be risky if not done securely. Practices like proper user input sanitization are crucial to preventing vulnerabilities like XSS attacks.
Simpler than PHP, Twig still has a learning curve. Understanding syntax, filters, and functions requires an investment of time and effort.	Heavily logic-laden PHP code within templates can be difficult for others to understand and maintain. This can lead to challenges during future updates or collaborations.
Creating custom Twig filters or functions requires caution. Improper implementation can introduce security vulnerabilities if not rigorously tested and validated.	Complex PHP code within templates can make them less readable. This can hinder collaboration and debugging efforts.

So, Twig and PHP assets, such as templates, give the Drupal theme author maximum power and performance. Combined with the optimization of these templates and search engine optimization (SEO) based on industry standards, you will build stunning and reliable Drupal sites. Besides this fact, the unique design of your website will contribute to its visibility on an unimaginably huge number of websites on the internet.

Recap of key takeaways from the article 

• Twig's Advantages. Twig accelerates the theming, cleans up the code, and is easy to maintain, which is why the developers consider it the best option for current Drupal.
• PHP Template Flexibility. Twig has been designed to run more blazingly quickly, though PHP templating continues to be used in projects with complex logic or as a legacy option in Drupal 11.
• SEO Optimization. Using Twig and PHP templating best practices may improve a Drupal site's search engine visibility by using semantic markup, structured data integration, and performance optimization. 

Resources and tools for additional learning

• The Drupal theme documentation contains procedure concepts and best practices, as well as links to help websites. 
• Twig Templating Engine. The official Twig documentation onwards describes in detail the structure, filters, and other functionalities of Twig. 
• Bartik Theme. It is the default theme already in the Drupal kits for versions 8 and 9. Moreover, it is a good place to learn about Drupal's theme structure and the use of Twig templates. 
• Drupal Twig Cheat Sheet. This useful cheat sheet gives a quick overview of the most commonly used Twig functions, filters, tags, and other elements. 
• Learn Twig. An online tutorial, which is featured on the official Twig site, serves as a practical tool to learn the Twig syntax and functions as well as to improve them with the aid of step-by-step activities. 

Conclusion

Twig takes care of the presentation side and ensures the separation of the PHP code (templates) from the business logic. The semantic structure becomes more precise and clean. Well-structured code is what search engines like. Thus, they can easily understand your website's content and structure, which can be an advantage in the rankings. 
Drupal's template system, driven by Twig and PHP, allows you to implement numerous SEO tricks and comply with your themes directly. By default, Twig templates allow you to utilize structured output data. This will aid search engines in determining the actual content types on your website, allowing them to crawl articles you wrote and other web pages, making search engine results richer. Our team is dedicated to helping you master powerful tools and create successful Drupal projects.