Why Twig in Drupal Is So Good: A Developer's Perspective

Since the release of Drupal 8, the Twig templating engine has been the cornerstone of Drupal's front-end experience. Replacing the old PHPTemplate system, Twig brought a level of safety, readability, and power that has transformed how we build themes.

The Pillars of Twig's Success

Why do we love Twig? It's all about the three S's: Simple, Safe, and Structured.

1. Readability and Simplicity Twig's syntax is clean and intuitive. It's designed to be readable by developers and designers alike. By separating logic from presentation, Twig templates stay focused on HTML structure and classes, making them far easier to maintain over time.

2. Security by Default One of Twig's most powerful features is auto-escaping. It automatically sanitises every variable output in a template, protecting your site from Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks out of the box. You have to explicitly use the `|raw` filter to bypass this, which forces a conscious decision around data safety.

3. Inheritance and Reusability The `extends`, `include`, and `embed` tags allow for a modular approach to theming. We can build a library of reusable components and layouts, reducing code duplication and ensuring visual consistency across your entire site.

Practical Examples for Your Next Theme

To get the most out of Twig, you should leverage its built-in filters and functions. Here are a few patterns we use daily:

Conditional Attribute Management Instead of messy if-statements inside your HTML tags, use the `addClass` and `set` functions to manage classes cleanly:

```twig {% set classes = [ 'card', is_featured ? 'card--featured', not has_image ? 'card--no-image', ] %} <div{{ attributes.addClass(classes) }}> {{ content }} </div> ```

Looping with 'else' Show a fallback message when there's no content to display without needing extra logic in your PHP layer:

```twig <ul> {% for item in items %} <li>{{ item }}</li> {% else %} <li>No items found.</li> {% endfor %} </ul> ```

Mastery through Experience

At Digidrop, we've built some of Europe's largest Drupal sites. We know Twig inside and out—from creating custom Twig filters and functions to architecting complex component libraries with Pattern Lab and Storybook.

If your Drupal theme is feeling cluttered or hard to manage, [reach out to us](/contact). We can help you refactor your theming layer to be more efficient, secure, and modern.