FAQ

FAQ

Which adapter should I use?

• No dependencies, full control, small/medium apps: Pure PHP.
• Rich templating with layouts, components and directives: Blade (needs illuminate/view).
• Designer-friendly, sandboxed templates: Twig (needs twig/twig).

All three implement the same interface, so you can start with Pure PHP and switch later by changing one line at bootstrap. See the comparison table on the Home page.

Do I have to use the view() helper?

No. The helper is a convenience wrapper over the View facade. Use the facade directly if you prefer, or if another view() function already exists in your project (the helper is guarded by function_exists, so it yields to an existing one):

echo View::setView('home')->setData(['title' => 'Hi'])->render();

Why do I get "No view adapter has been registered"?

You called the facade or the view() helper before View::via(). Register an adapter once during bootstrap, before any rendering. The error is a ViewException.

Can I switch engines without changing my code?

Yes — that is the point of the package. Your code calls view() or the facade; only the View::via(...) line at bootstrap names the engine. Change that line and everything else stays the same.

Does it escape output automatically?

It depends on the adapter:

• Pure PHP does not auto-escape — escape untrusted data yourself with htmlspecialchars() (or initphp/escaper).
• Blade escapes {{ }} output by default.
• Twig auto-escapes by default.

Why did view('home.php') not become home.php.php?

The Pure PHP adapter only appends .php when it is missing, so view('home') and view('home.php') both resolve to views/home.php. (This was a real bug in 1.0 and is fixed.)

Can a view file access the adapter or $this?

No. With the Pure PHP adapter, each view runs in an isolated scope that sees only its data variables — never $this or the renderer's internals. A data key named views simply becomes $views in the template.

Can I pass an object instead of an array?

Yes. An object's public properties become the template data:

$user = new stdClass();
$user->name = 'admin';
echo view('profile', $user);   // $name is available

Can I register more than one adapter at a time?

The facade holds one active adapter; via() overwrites it. If you need two engines in the same request, construct the adapters directly and call their setView()/setData()/render() methods instead of going through the facade.

Why does View::via(PurePHPAdapter::class) throw?

via() can only instantiate a class name when the adapter has a no-argument constructor. The built-in adapters need directories, so pass a configured instance instead:

View::via(new PurePHPAdapter(__DIR__ . '/views'));

The class-name form is meant for your own zero-argument adapters. The error is a ViewAdapterException.

Does it render to a string or echo directly?

Always a string. view(...) and View::render() return the output; you decide whether to echo it, write it to a PSR-7 response, or use it as an email body. See Recipes.

Does it work outside a framework?

Yes. There is no framework requirement. The Blade adapter even bootstraps a standalone Illuminate container for you, so Blade works without a Laravel app — see Blade Adapter.

Why must Twig view names include the extension?

Twig resolves templates by their exact filename and does not assume an extension, so you pass view('page.html.twig'). Only the Pure PHP adapter adds .php for you.

Is this a PSR implementation?

No — there is no PSR for view rendering. The package defines its own minimal ViewAdapterInterface and the exceptions implement a local ViewExceptionInterface marker.

Something is still unclear

Open an issue or start a discussion — documentation fixes are merged eagerly.