After this the usage,and even the need for twig in Drupal will hopefully a bit more clear to you. Twig forces you into writing clean template code instead of using php logic because hrmm well you can ;)

Twig for readability

Normally you will write something like this, if you need to write a bunch of links to the screen

<?php foreach ($links as $link) : ?>
<a href="<?php print $link['href']; ?>" id="<?php print $link['id']; ?>" title="<?php print $link['title']; ?>" target="<?php print $link['target']; ?>"><?php print $link['description']; ?></a>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Not that hard to read, i admit that.. Now the same block in twig syntax

{% for link in links %}
{{link.description}}
{% endfor %}

Much easier on the eye, isn’t it :)
And for practical use, this is my current test block from garland translated into twig

<div id="block-{{block.module}}-{{block.delta}}" class="clear-block block block-{{block.module}}">
{% if (block.subject) %}
  <h2>{{block.subject}}</h2>
{% endif %}
  <div class="content">{{ block.content}}</div>
</div>

<?php
class sheep(){
 function identify(){
	return "blaat";
	}
}
?>

<?php
function twig_block_preprocess(&$block){
 $block["sheep"] = new sheep();
}
?>

Then in your twigged template, you want the sheep to identify itself by the noise it makes

<h1>Sheep</h1>
The sheep is recognized by the {{sheep.identify()}} noise it makes.

Can you see where this is going? Imagine assigning views or form code to your template and simply call them in a much more cleanier and easier to read way, by keeping the logic where it belongs!

Translating and linking, and debugging.

By default twig-for-drupal comes with two wrappers for the most used functions in a template, or atleast i think so.

<a href="{%l 'node/12' %}">{%t 'readmore' %}</a>
Produce a translated readmore link to node/12 , and node/12 is nicelly SEO friendly if you are using pathauto.

Currently in the github repository there is also support for the devel module. If enabled, you can use it to either DPR or DPM your variables

<div id="block-{{block.module}}-{{block.delta}}" class="clear-block block block-{{block.module}}">
{% if (block.subject) %}
  <h2>{{block.subject}}</h2>
{% endif %}
  <div class="content">{% dpr block %}</div>
</div>

Please note that Twig removes the spaces between the {% dpr, is just use them to make it more readable.

Today’s changes

After working with the twig engine last week, two of my colleagues wanted to use doctrine generated objects for a D6 project currently in the making, but ran into some issues with the default twig behaviour of putting is_set() function around variables in compiled templates. Which gave some issues with not calling the proper __GET for those objects.

This is changed now, which means that the content of the variable is no longer checked in the compiled template and you NEED to either nicely assign/init everything you use or put a IF statement around it yourself. Later on, when the module to configure the twig engine is done, this will become an on/off option.

An other issue was naming of the cache files, by default with made a file called __TWIG_TEMPLATE__.MD5(‘templatename’).php.

This is changed into a more easier findable themename_templatename_tpl_html.php file in the /files/twig_cache folder.
Just in case you are left wondering what the *bleep* twig is doing underwater.

One more thing….

As from now, the engine gives a drupal_set_message warning if fallback mode is being used. So you can see which template’s you need to twig!

Happy twigging….. and grab the latest version from my github

This project is for those who like me, are getting that strange itching sensation in the neck when reading the amounts of PHP code in drupal tipplephip files. Not for the people who claim PHP is a template language and that a language in a language is a stupid waste of time. For all I care go ahead, and keep rocking the party like it is still 1998. To me PHP has come a long way since then with the usual growing pains, but it has become so much more then just a simple language to make personal home pages and thus a template system is no excessive baggage but a good companion in creating maintenance friendly code!

Usage

$git clone git://github.com/renebakx/twig-for-drupal.git
$cd twig
$git submodule init
$git submodule update

Syntax

Translate or T, the mapper for the the drupal t() method

usage {%t “foo” %} / {%t object.name %} / {%t “foo” lang=’nl’%} / {%t “foo” lang=user.lang %} or any other combination.

{%t 'readmore' lang='nl' %} returns the string Lees meer to your template.

Link, or L, mapper to the drupal url() method

<a href=”{%l 'node/12'%}”> would return the path to node/12 or /somestory/ if node/12 was a translated trough pathauto.

DPR and DPM, mapper to devel module dpr() and dpm() methods

{%dpr variable %} or {%dpm variable%} where variable can also be an object or array.

Size filter, mapper to format_size

{{ file.size|size }} to show the user 1.2MB instead of 12582912

Extending it yourself

Since i made the plan to change from a rather expensive dedicated server to a much cheaper VPS solution, i started thinking about moving away from the sluggish apache2 stack. Fed by the fact that the PHP developers surprised me by suddenly announcing that the support for the php 5.2.x is going into security fixes when needed mode, i decided i might as well go all the way then. Moving to PHP 5.3.3 running a much leaner and faster NGINX HTTP server under Ubuntu 10.4 LTS using the new PHP-FPM instead of fastcgiOn that server I am most likely going to run a few sites in Drupal 7, i sat down to configure a small development environment under virtual box.Downloaded the 64Bit ISO of ubuntu server, installed a basic server without any preconfigured extensions except sshd and mysql-server.After installing, updating and such,  had plenty of time reading myself into configuring nginx, compiling php and creating an image cache friendly version of the default nginx setup.

(please do note i once again assume the shell user is either root via the sudo bash method, or you need to type sudo in front of most commands)

Step 1, the easy one

apt-get install nginx

Step 2, compile php 5.3.3 from source

cd /usr/local/source/
wget http://nl3.php.net/get/php-5.3.3.tar.gz/from/nl2.php.net/mirror
tar -xzf php-5.3.3.tar.gz

Get the rest of the needed libraries and compiler trough apt-get

apt-get install autoconf2.13 libssl-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libjpeg62-dev libpng12-dev  libmysql++-dev libfreetype6-dev libt1-dev libc-client-dev mysql-client libevent-dev libxml2-dev libtool libmcrypt-dev
cd php-5.3.3
./configure --enable-fpm --with-mcrypt --enable-mbstring --with-openssl --with-mysql --with-mysql-sock --with-gd --with-jpeg-dir=/usr/lib --enable-gd-native-ttf  --with-pdo-mysql --with-libxml-dir=/usr/lib --with-mysqli=/usr/bin/mysql_config --with-curl --enable-zip  --enable-sockets --with-zlib --enable-exif --enable-ftp --with-iconv --with-gettext --enable-gd-native-ttf --with-t1lib=/usr --with-freetype-dir=/usr --prefix=/usr/local/php --with-fpm-user=www-data –with-fpm-group=www-data

As you can see, rather basic version. No SQLite, just GD, MYSQL and some multibyte, crypt stuff etc.
Do note that the “–with-fpm-user=www-data –with-fpm-group=www-data” is different with the latest build of php 5.3.3, previous versions you needed the php-fpm patch, but from this version on it is included as a beta option

No errors occurred, fired up my nespresso machine, and started the compiling of PHP

make
make install

And while you are at it, you could do the make test as well, so the php people receive yet an other compiling log ;))
After compiling and few nespresso’s (fortissio lungo if you really want to know :)) it was time to copy some files into their appropriate place.
Since it is a dev box, I preferred the development php.ini, you could substitute php.ini.development with php.ini.production if you wanted to

cp php.ini-development /usr/local/lib/php/php.ini
chmod 644 /usr/local/php/php.ini
cp /usr/local/php/etc/php-fpm.conf.default /usr/local/php/etc/php-fpm.conf
cp sapi/fpm/init.d.php-fpm /etc/init.d/php-fpm
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/php-fpm
update-rc.d -f php-fpm defaults
touch /var/run/php-fpm.pid

Step 3, configure nginx and php-fpm

Starting with php-fpm, I like my PID files in one place, so i altered the /etc/init.d/php-fpm a little by changing

php_fpm_PID =${prefix}/var/run/php-fpm.pid into php_fpm_PID=/var/run/php-fpm.pid

Then a few lines in the /usr/local/etc/php-fpm.conf, which is a rather large file so i just sum up the changes i made assuming you know how to search/replace etc by yourself since you are reading this not so noobisch point and click blogpost anyway.

error_log = /var/log/php-fpm.log
pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 50
pm.start_servers = 10
pm.min_spare_servers = 5
pm.max_spare_servers = 35

Next up was configuring nginx, and must warn you upfront. I have NO idea if this is the correct way of doing it. It seemed the most logically way after reading the manual and some posts in the ground-squirrel/nginx.
This is the config chunk i ended up with, and i know that some parts can be moved into a own designated include file, but that is for next time :)
My site is in the /var/www/drupal7 and the log files go into /var/log/

server {
listen 80 default;
root /var/www/drupal7/;
index index.php;
access_log /var/log/drupal7_access.log;
error_log /var/log/drupal7_error.log;
# if the file is not physical there, loop trough drupal
if (!-e $request_filename) {
rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1 last;
}
# if the file is not imagecached, create one
location ~ /files/imagecache/ {
rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1 last;
}
# just send a empty response if the favicon.ico is m.i.a
location = /favicon.ico {
try_files /favicon.ico =204;
}
# hide protected files
location ~*.(.htaccess|engine|inc|info|install|module|profile|po|sh|.*sql|theme|tpl(.php)?|xtmpl)$ {
deny all;
}
# enable robots.txt
location = /robots.txt {}
# hide backup_migrate files
location ~* ^/files/backup_migrate {
deny all;
}
# Allow all files in this location to be downloaded
location ~ ^.*/files/.*$ {}
# setup the php-fpm pass-trough
location ~ .php$ {
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
}
}

Final step, tested the config files and uploaded drupal7-dev in place

service nginx configtest

If no errors occurred, start up php-fpm and nginx

service php-fpm start
service nginx start

Upload drupal into the correct, folder do what you normally would do, like copy the settings.php, create a mysql database and in this case remove the .htaccess since it is not needed by nginx.

Point your browser to the correct server, and if all went well you should see a rather familiar picture :)

The problem is a long ago confirmed yet still not solved bug in apache mod_vhost_alias, however with a little PHP magic it was easy fixable in my local XAMPP configuration using the php_admin_value directive in the vhost configuration.

Step 1

Open the httpd_vhosts.conf located in the /Applictions/XAMPP/etc/extra folder and add the following line to the virtual_host definition

php_admin_value auto_prepend_file /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/php/fix_docroot.php

So I ended up with a httpd_vhost configuration looking like this :

<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerName dev.local
	ServerAlias *.dev.local
	ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
	VirtualDocumentRoot "/Users/rene/Sites/%1"
	VirtualDocumentRoot "/Users/rene/Sites/%-3+/"
	<Directory /Users/rene/Sites/>
		Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
	php_admin_value auto_prepend_file /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/php/fix_docroot.php
</Virtualhost>

Step 2

Next up is creating a small php str_replace function in fix_docroot.php , which is loaded and executed at every request.

Open up your favorite code editor, and create a file called fix_docroot.php at /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/php/ and paste the following chunk of code in it.

<?php
$_SERVER["ORG_DOCUMENT_ROOT"] = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"];
$_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] = str_replace($_SERVER["SCRIPT_NAME"], '',$_SERVER["SCRIPT_FILENAME"]);
?>

Save it, restart apache and the values should be set correctly, with the old value still available in $_SERVER["ORG_DOCUMENT_ROOT"] just in case it is needed for something.

The goal was to have *.dev.local pointing to 127.0.0.1 so i only needed to add/alter my apache vhosts.conf to fit my project needs.

small hint upfront, # means a single line in your shell followed by a enter, and keep the terminal opened till the end.

Step 1

Open your terminal and use the ‘sudo bash’ command to become the super user, not really needed but I do hate typing sudo before every command. After becoming root, generate a new rndc.key

#su -
#rndc-confgen -a -c /etc/rndc.key

Step 2

Creating the actual zone file for your  .dev.local segment. I’am using textmate as editor on my mac, but you can use any other you like. If your OSX installation is still virgin, substitute mate with nano in the following lines

#mate /var/named/db.dev.local

An empty file should be opened, now drop the zone config in it and save it.

dev.local. 7200    IN       SOA     dev.local. root.dev.local. (
					2008031801 ;    Serial
					15      ; Refresh every 15 minutes
					3600    ; Retry every hour
					3000000 ; Expire after a month+
					86400 ) ; Minimum ttl of 1 day
dev.local. IN      NS      dev.local.
dev.local. IN      MX      10 dev.local.
dev.local. IN      A       127.0.0.1
*.dev.local.	IN      A       127.0.0.1

Please note the trailing dot  after the local! If you want your wildcard DNS to be something else, feel free to substitute it with something else. But keep in mind the trailing dot!

Step 3

Adding the zone to your named config

#mate /etc/named.conf

Locate a section that starts with ‘zone “0.0.127.’ and insert the  pointer to the freshly created zone file in between the 0.0.127 and logging zone.

added "/etc/named.conf"
zone "dev.local" IN {
        type master;
        file "/var/named/db.dev.local";
};

So you end up with a zone file looking a bit like this

zone "." IN {
        type hint;
        file "named.ca";
};

zone "localhost" IN {
        type master;
        file "localhost.zone";
        allow-update { none; };
};

zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" IN {
        type master;
        file "named.local";
        allow-update { none; };
};

zone "dev.local" IN {
        type master;
        file "/var/named/db.dev.local";
};

logging {
        category default {
                _default_log;
        };

        channel _default_log  {
                file "/Library/Logs/named.log";
                severity info;
                print-time yes;
        };
};

Step 4

Firing the whole shabam up :)

Test if the config is right

#named-checkconf /etc/named.conf

If it returns an error, solve it with logic. Most likely a typing error :)

Check if the zone is created correctly

#named-checkzone dev.local /var/named/db.dev.local

that should return something simular to this

/var/named/db.dev.local:7: using RFC1035 TTL semantics

zone dev.local/IN: loaded serial 2008031801

OK

Once again if it fails, fix it using logic. Check for typing errors, first time i forgot one  those dreaded trailing dots

Finally adding it to your mac’s startup list, purely for convenience. If you are a memory freak feel free to start the named server only when needed, but i’am lazy and do not want to be bothered with it every single time i reboot. Which is about 4 times a year ;)

#launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.isc.named.plist

Step 5

The last part, tell your DNS config to use your local DNS before checking the big net for your domain.

Flush your systems DNS cache

#dscacheutil -flushcache

You can safely close the super user shell now, we are done using our superpowers. Keep the shell open, cause the final test is done in a normal user shell.

Open your system preferences,and click network,  then advanced button.
If needed add 127.0.0.1 to your server list with the + on left  and drag it to the top of the list. The other two DNS entries are pointers i created to opendns because my ISP is not that good at running fast responding DNS servers.

Do not set the search domain to the same name as your wildcard dns name, or you will end up looking at your local web server for every failed DNS lookup ;)

After pressing the OK button a few times, the final step is testing if it actually works

Final step

Testing if your new zone is dig’able

#dig myzone.dev.local

where  myzone can be anything you want, cause well hey we are running a wildcard DNS here. The response should look a bit like this :

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> myzone.dev.local

;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 53590
;; flags: qraa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;myzone.dev.local.			IN	A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
myzone.dev.local.		7200	IN	A	127.0.0.1
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
dev.local.		7200	IN	NS	dev.local.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
dev.local.		7200	IN	A	127.0.0.1
;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Sat Jun 12 08:37:11 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 77

Bonus section, enabling the vhost in xampp

I’am assuming you did a basic installation of xampp by dropping the package into the Applications folder like instructed

Using the finder browse to /Applications/XAMPP/etc  and open the file called HTTPD.CONF in your favorite text editor.
Locate the two commented lines for the virtual host, somewhere at the bottom around line number 469
# Virtual hosts
#Include /Applications/XAMPP/etc/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "/Users/rene/Sites/renebakx.nl"
    ServerName renebakx.dev.local
	<Directory /Users/rene/Sites/renebakx.nl>
	AllowOverride ALL
	</directory>
</VirtualHost>

Rik’s bonus part

Like mention below in the comments by Rik, using the vhost_alias module it’s even easierHowever there is a small downside to it. I personally like my development folders named a bit like the site i’am working on. For example the contents of this site is in the “renebakx.nl” folder. vhost_alias uses the dot to calculate offsets in alias names. If you can live with the fact that your subdomain can not contain a dot, or you don’t mind replacing a dot with a dash. Feel free to swap the above mentioned vhost directives with something like this.

Boy was I wrong :) You can use multiple VirtualDocumentRoot rules. I ended up with a vhost configuration like this

<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerName dev.local
	ServerAlias *.dev.local
	ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
	VirtualDocumentRoot "/Users/rene/Sites/%1"
	VirtualDocumentRoot "/Users/rene/Sites/%-3+/"
	<Directory /Users/rene/Sites/>
		Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
</Virtualhost>

As you can see, this point whatever.dev.local to ‘/Users/rene/Sites/whatever’ and somesite.nl.dev.local points to ‘/Users/rene/Sites/somesite.nl’

Now how awesome is that? :D