Symfony2 - Load different templates based on user agent

If you want to load different templates for different user agents while keeping the same backend code base, you can accomplish this simply in 2 ways.

1. Responsive Template
2. Load different templates against user agents.

In this blog post I’m trying to demonstrate the option 2 (load different templates against user agents)

The trick is to use RequestFormat in Symfony

1. Create a Request Listener

        php app/console generate:bundle --namespace=Acme/RequestListenerBundle --format=yml
   

   Note: You don’t need Controller or Tests directories

   Past the below code to AcmeRequestListnerBundle.php

        <?php
            namespace Acme\RequestListenerBundle;
            use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\HttpKernelInterface;
            use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Event\GetResponseEvent;
   
            class AcmeRequestListenerBundle
            {
                public function onKernelRequest(GetResponseEvent $event)
                {
                    $request = $event->getRequest();
   
                    if(preg_match('/(alcatel|amoi|android|avantgo|blackberry|benq|cell|cricket|docomo|elaine|htc|
                        iemobile|iphone|ipad|ipaq|ipod|j2me|java|midp|mini|mmp|mobi|motorola|nec-|nokia|palm|panasonic|
                        philips|phone|playbook|sagem|sharp|sie-|silk|smartphone|sony|symbian|t-mobile|telus|up\.browser|
                        up\.link|vodafone|wap|webos|wireless|xda|xoom|zte)/i', $request->headers->get('user-agent')
                            )
                        )
                    {
                        $request->setRequestFormat('mobile', 'text/html');
                    }else {
                        $request->setRequestFormat('html', 'text/html');
                    }
                }
   
                private function setFormat (\Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request $request, $format='html')
                {
                    $request->setRequestFormat($format, 'text/html');
                }
            }
        ?>
   

2. Create a test action in your controller

   • Action Method

           /**
           * @Route("/test", name="_demo_test")
           * @Template()
           */
     
           public function testAction()
           {
               return array(
                   'name' => 'Thilanga Pitigala',
               );
           }
     

   • Run and Verify the route

           php app/console router:debug | grep _demo_test
     

   • Template

     Create the template for newly created action Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/views/Demo/test.html.twig

               {% extends "AcmeDemoBundle::layout.html.twig" %}
                   {% block title "Hello " %}
                   {% block content %}
                   Hello Desktop !
               {% endblock %}
                 
     

3. Create a Service using RequestListener Add below code to config.yml

        services: acme.listener.request:
        class: Acme\RequestListenerBundle\AcmeRequestListenerBundle
        tags: - {
                name: kernel.event_listener,
                event: kernel.request,
                method: onKernelRequest
            }
   

   • Run

           php app/console container:debug | grep acme.listener.request
     

     and That will output the newly created service

4. Test RequestListener service Try visiting the web applications from mobile device. It will throw an error complaining about missing test.mobile.twig file.

   Create the test.mobile.twig file in Acme/DemoBundle/Resources/views/Demo/test.html.twig as we created the test.html.twig template. Now you will be able to see the mobile template from mobile devices while desktop template load for desktop agents.

   By that way we can load different templates for different agents without doing any responsive templates.

Happy Coding..