Bolt Internals / Container Service References

Note: You are currently reading the documentation for Bolt 2.2. Looking for the documentation for Bolt 5.2 instead?

Below you'll find a reference for a lot of the objects, arrays, services and libraries that are accessible in the code through $app, and, if relevant, how to use these in the templates.

$app['config']¶

This multi-dimensional array contains all the configuration settings from the various .yml files in app/config. They are named like their YAML counterparts: 'general' (for config.yml), 'contenttypes', 'taxonomy' and 'menu'.

You can get any setting through this array. For instance, to get the value for 'homepage_template', use this:

$app['config']->get('general/homepage_template')

These variables are also accessible in your templates:

    {{ dump(config.get('general/homepage_template')) }}

Remember to use {{ dump() }} and dump() to dump these arrays to inspect the current values.

$app['resources']¶

The 'resources' object contains an instance of the Bolt\Configuration\ResourceManager class.

This obejct is most useful for obtaining and managing references to paths, folders and links in your current website.

File system paths are fetched/set by:

$app['resources']->getPath()
$app['resources']->setPath()

URL paths are fetched/set by:

$app['resources']->getUrl()
$app['resources']->setUrl()

File system paths available are:

    "root" => "/path/to/bolt"
    "rootpath" => "/path/to/bolt"
    "apppath" => "/path/to/bolt/app"
    "extensionsconfig" => "/path/to/bolt/app/config/extensions"
    "extensionsconfigpath" => "/path/to/bolt/app/config/extensions"
    "extensionspath" => "/path/to/bolt/extensions"
    "filespath" => "/path/to/bolt/files"
    "web"  => "/path/to/bolt/"
    "webpath" => "/path/to/bolt/"
    "cache" => "/path/to/bolt/app/cache"
    "cachepath" => "/path/to/bolt/appcache"
    "config" => "/path/to/bolt/app/config"
    "configpath" => "/path/to/bolt/app/config"
    "database" => "/path/to/bolt/app/database"
    "databasepath" => "/path/to/bolt/app/database"
    "themebase" => "/path/to/bolt/theme"
    "themebasepath" => "/path/to/bolt/theme"
    "themepath" => "/path/to/bolt/theme/base-2014"
    "templatespath" => "/path/to/bolt/theme/base-2014"
  ]

URL paths available are:

    "root" => "/"
    "app" => "/app/"
    "extensions" => "/extensions/"
    "files" => "/files/"
    "async" => "/async/"
    "upload" => "/upload/"
    "bolt" => "/bolt/"
    "theme" => "/theme/base-2014/"
    "current" => "/"
    "canonicalurl" => "https://www.bolt.cm/page/about"
    "currenturl" => "https://bolt.cm/page/about"
    "hosturl" => "https://bolt.cm"
    "rooturl" => "https://bolt.cm/"
  ]

$app['db']¶

The 'db' object is a Doctrine Database Abstraction Layer object. Use it to query "stuff" in the database.

Because of the DBAL, you don't need to worry about whether the site is set up as MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite. Just make sure to use SQL/DQL that Doctrine understands. For more information, see this page on the Doctrine DBAL: Data Retrieval And Manipulation.

Example:

$tablename = $app['config']->get('general/database/prefix') . $contenttype;
$query = "UPDATE $tablename SET $field = ? WHERE id = ?";
$stmt = $app['db']->prepare($query);
$stmt->bindValue(1, $value);
$stmt->bindValue(2, $id);
$res = $stmt->execute();

echo "Result was: " . dump($res);

Check src/Storage.php for a lot of examples using the DBAL.

$app['mailer']¶

This is an instance of Swiftmailer.

• http://silex.sensiolabs.org/doc/providers/swiftmailer.html
• http://swiftmailer.org/

$app['logger.system']¶

Instance of Monolog\Logger and implements the PSR-3 logging interface

Example:

$message = 'Login: ' . $request->get('username');
$app['logger.system']->info($message, array('event' => 'authentication'));

Logger calls can be any of:

• emergency()
• alert()
• critical()
• error()
• warning()
• notice()
• info()
• debug()

The first parameter is a message string.

The second parameter is the context array, and must contain an event key with a value of any of the following:

• authentication
• config
• content
• cron
• deprecated
• exception
• extension
• news
• nut
• security
• storage
• template
• translation
• twig
• upload

$app['users']¶

Instance of Bolt\Users. See src/Users.php for details.

$app['session']¶

Instance of Silex Session. See Silex SessionServiceProvider for details.

Use this to set Flash messages: Messages that appear on the current or next pageview, for the current user. Example:

$app['session']->getFlashBag()->set('success', 'Something went A-OK.');
$app['session']->getFlashBag()->set('info', 'A neutral message.');
$app['session']->getFlashBag()->set('error', 'Something went horribly wrong.');

$app['cache']¶

Instance of Bolt\Cache. See src/Cache.php for details.

$app['extensions']¶

This is an instance of Bolt\Extensions. See the page on Bolt extensions for details.

$app['twig']¶

This is an instance of Twig. A lot more information on this can be found both in the Bolt documentation, as well as on the Twig website:

• The Twig website
• Templates in Bolt

Note: You should not directly use this object, normally. Instead, use $app['render']. See below.

$app['render']¶

This is an object used as a wrapper around Twig's render functionality. If enabled, it also takes care of caching the results.

Most controllers return a rendered Twig template as a result, but you can also render a (sub)template as HTML, process it further if needed, and return that as part of an extension or callback.

Inspect the various controllers for details. To use a template in your own code as part of the result, see this example:

$html = $app['render']->render("assets/bla.twig", array('form' =>  $data));

Note that the template file must be somewhere in (or below) the allowed folders for Twig templates. There are currently three folders Twig looks in for files:

• The /theme/themename/ folder, where 'themename' is the current theme as set in config.yml.
• The /app/view folder
• The /app/extensions folder

If you're using custom Twig templates in your extensions, you need to add an extra path, so Twig knows where to find these templates. You could create a new Twig instance, but that would also mean losing the global scope. Often, it's easier to add the current path of your extension, and use that:

$this->app['twig.loader.filesystem']->addPath(__DIR__);
$html = $this->app['render']->render(
        'assets/myextension_bar.twig',
        array(
            'foo' => $foo,
            'config' => $this->config
        )
    );
return $html;

$app['htmlsnippets']¶

Bolt outputs snippets in the HTML for includes like jQuery and the <meta generator> tag. By default these snippets are only output in the frontend, and not in async or backend pages. Extensions that use addCSS or addJavascript are also affected by this.

When creating an extension or custom controller, the debug is not added by default. In your code you can enable or disable the output of these snippets using the following:

$this->app['htmlsnippets'] = false;
$this->app['htmlsnippets'] = true;