Using template engines docs

docs/guide/index.md

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ Getting started
 
 - [Installation](installation.md)
 - [Bootstrap with Yii](bootstrap.md)
+- [Configuration](configuration.md)
 
 Base concepts
 =============
@@ -17,8 +18,6 @@ Base concepts
 - [Model](model.md)
 - [View](view.md)
 - [Application](application.md)
-- [Form](form.md)
-- [Model validation reference](validation.md)
 
 Database
 ========
@@ -31,6 +30,8 @@ Database
 More
 ====
 
+- [Form](form.md)
+- [Model validation reference](validation.md)
 - [Caching](caching.md)
 - [Internationalization](i18n.md)
 - [Extending Yii](extension.md)
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@ More
 - [URL Management](url.md)
 - [Theming](theming.md)
 - [Error Handling](error.md)
-- [Template](template.md)
+- [Using template engines](template.md)
 - [Console Application](console.md)
 - [Security](security.md)
 - [Performance Tuning](performance.md)

docs/guide/template.md

@@ -1,3 +1,86 @@
-Template
-========
+Using template engines
+======================
+
+By default Yii uses PHP as template language but you can configure it to be able
+to render templates with special engines such as Twig or Smarty.
+
+The component responsible for rendering a view is called `view`. You can add
+a custom template engines as follows:
+
+```php
+array(
+	'components' => array(
+		'view' => array(
+			'class' => 'yii\base\View',
+			'renderers' => array(
+				'tpl' => array(
+					'class' => 'yii\renderers\SmartyViewRenderer',
+				),
+				'twig' => array(
+					'class' => 'yii\renderers\TwigViewRenderer',
+					'twigPath' => '@app/vendors/Twig',
+				),
+				// ...
+			),
+		),
+	),
+)
+```
+
+Note that Smarty and Twig are not bundled with Yii and you have to download and
+unpack these yourself and then specify `twigPath` and `smartyPath` respectively.
+
+Twig
+----
+
+In order to use Twig you need to put you templates in files with extension `.twig`
+(or another one if configured differently).
+Also you need to specify this extension explicitly when calling `$this->render()`
+or `$this->renderPartial()` from your controller:
+
+```php
+echo $this->render('renderer.twig', array('username' => 'Alex'));
+```
+
+### Additional functions
+
+Additionally to regular Twig syntax the following is available in Yii:
+
+```php
+<a href="{{ path('blog/view', {'alias' : post.alias}) }}">{{ post.title }}</a>
+```
+
+path function calls `Html::url()` internally.
+
+### Additional variables
+
+- `app` = `\Yii::$app`
+- `this` = current `View` object
+
+Smarty
+------
+
+In order to use Smarty you need to put you templates in files with extension `.tpl`
+(or another one if configured differently).
+Also you need to specify this extension explicitly when calling `$this->render()`
+or `$this->renderPartial()` from your controller:
+
+```php
+echo $this->render('renderer.tpl', array('username' => 'Alex'));
+```
+
+### Additional functions
+
+Additionally to regular Smarty syntax the following is available in Yii:
+
+```php
+<a href="{path route='blog/view' alias=$post.alias}">{$post.title}</a>
+```
+
+path function calls `Html::url()` internally.
+
+### Additional variables
+
+- `$app` = `\Yii::$app`
+- `$this` = current `View` object