Using arbitrary PHP in templates

It is possible to use arbitrary PHP in your templates. Generally this is discouraged, but in some situations a simple statement can be of benefit to initialize a variable or aid debugging (for example).

Note: templates also support a special expression template tag; consider using this tag in favor of arbitrary PHP. We cover the tag in a later step of this guide.

To use PHP, you can enclose your statement in double-curly parenthesis, like so:

{{$myVar = 0;}}

Be sure to include the semi-colon so that your statement is valid.

This syntax allows for one-line statements. If you have a larger block, each line must contain its own double-curly parenthesis.

Note: templates use output buffering; attempting to echo, print_r or similar in the middle of a template is likely to cause errors. If you need to do this, we recommend following the statement with an {{exit;}} so that script execution ends immediately.