coolms/dtmpl

DTMPL template engine: a designer-facing template language with a lexer, parser, AST and runtime, plus a widget seam for host-supplied components

v1.0.0 2026-08-13 22:29 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.5
• psr/cache: ^2.0 || ^3.0
• symfony/property-access: ^8.0
• symfony/translation-contracts: ^3.0

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: ^12.5

MIT

• Dmitry Popov

• template
• parser
• cms
• ast
• template-engine
• dtmpl

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-08-13 22:31 UTC

README

A template language for people who are not PHP developers. Lexer, parser, AST and runtime, with a widget seam so an application can offer components to template authors without exposing any PHP.

{if:page.isPublished}
    <h1>{var:page.title uppercase}</h1>

    {loop:posts:post}
        <article>{var:post.excerpt truncate:120}</article>
    {endloop}
{endif}

• Sandboxed by design -- a template reads what the context gives it and calls nothing else. No PHP, no filesystem, no arbitrary calls.
• Framework-optional -- the engine needs no HTTP kernel and no DI container. For Symfony, add coolms/dtmpl-bundle.
• Extensible where it matters -- widgets, filters, constants and loaders are seams the host fills.

Installation

composer require coolms/dtmpl

Requires PHP ^8.5. Depends on psr/cache and two Symfony contract packages (property-access, translation-contracts) -- no framework.

use CoolMS\Dtmpl\DtmplEngine;
use CoolMS\Dtmpl\Loader\FilesystemTemplateLoader;

$engine = new DtmplEngine(
    loader: new FilesystemTemplateLoader('/path/to/templates'),
);

echo $engine->render('page.html.dtmpl', ['page' => $page, 'posts' => $posts]);

Symfony

composer require coolms/dtmpl-bundle

That registers the engine, the loader chain, the widget registry and the constant providers.

Syntax at a glance

Every tag is {keyword:argument}. Blocks close with {endkeyword} -- there is no {/keyword} form.

variable	{var:page.title}
with filters	{var:page.title uppercase truncate:80}
assignment	{def:total=cart.count}
conditional	{if:page.isPublished} ... {else} ... {endif}
negated	{unless:user.isAnonymous} ... {endunless}
comparison	{if:post.status=published}, also != < <= > >=
loop	{loop:posts} ... {endloop} or {loop:posts:post}
include	{include:`partials/header`} ... {endinclude}
slot / fill	{slot:main} ... {endslot} / {fill:main} ... {endfill}
constant	{const:SITE_NAME}
translation	{t:`Hello`} or {t:`Hello`:`mail`} (key, domain)
widget	{widget:comments} or {widget:document:my-slug}
raw block	{raw} ... {endraw}

String literals use backticks, so a template never fights HTML quoting.

Full reference: docs/language.md.

Filters

51 built-in filters, applied space-separated and taking arguments after a colon:

{var:price currency:`EUR`}
{var:body truncate_words:40}
{var:tags join:`, `}

One distinction is worth learning early, because the two look interchangeable and are not:

{var:count default:`none`}    <- 0 is falsy, so this prints "none"
{var:count coalesce:`none`}   <- 0 survives; only null/""/false fall back

Full list: docs/filters.md.

Safety

Output is escaped by default. {raw} and the raw filter are the explicit opt-outs, and the only way to emit unescaped HTML. A template cannot reach anything the context does not expose, and in strict mode an unknown variable is an error rather than a silent empty string.

License

MIT © Dmitry Popov