As it doesn't make sense for the content/static action to only manage one static file, we need to pass the page as a request parameter to be able to select our template. So, we add a routing rule:

page:
  url:   /static/:page
  param: { module: content, action: static }

Now, let's see how we can update the action to load a different template based on the page request parameter.

Change the suffix#

The first thing we can do is to change the default Success suffix by explicitly returning the page:

getParameter('page');
  }
}

Now, if we request the /static/about page, symfony will load the staticabout.php template.

Here is the templates/ directory content for two different pages:

templates/
  staticabout.php
  staticcontact.php

Change the template name#

Instead of changing the suffix, we can also change the template name like this:

setTemplate($request->getParameter('page'));
  }
}

Now, when requesting the /static/about page, symfony will load the aboutSuccess.php template.

Here is the templates/ directory content:

templates/
  aboutSuccess.php
  contactSuccess.php

As the content module can have some other actions, we might want to put all the static templates under a sub-directory. This can be done by prefixing the template name with the sub-directory:

setTemplate('static/'.$request->getParameter('page'));
  }
}

And symfony will now load the static/aboutSuccess.php template.

Here is the templates/ directory content:

templates/
  static/
    aboutSuccess.php
    contactSuccess.php

And if we don't want the Success suffix, we can return an empty string:

setTemplate('static/'.$request->getParameter('page'));

    return '';
  }
}

And now symfony will load the static/about.php template.

Here is the templates/ directory content:

templates/
  static/
    about.php
    contact.php

More fun with the suffix#

Let's add a new requirement: The static pages exist in two formats, HTML and XML, and both formats must be available to the end user.

This means that the user can now request /static/about.html or /static/about.xml. And by default, if the user doesn't provide any extension, the action must return the HTML version.

Let's add the extension request parameter in the routing rule:

page:
  url:   /static/:page.:extension
  param: { module: content, action: static, extension: html }
  requirements:
    extension: (html|xml)

As an added bonus, we've added a requirement to check the correctness of the extension.

And here is the rewritten action:

setTemplate('static/'.$request->getParameter('page'));

    return '.'.$request->getParameter('extension');
  }
}

So, if we request the /static/about page (or /static/about.hml), symfony will load the static/about.html.php template. And if we request the XML version of the page (/static/about.xml), symfony will load the static/about.xml.php template.

Here is the templates/ directory content:

templates/
  static/
    about.html.php
    contact.html.php
    about.xml.php
    contact.xml.php

We can also store our templates in sub-directories according to the format:

setTemplate('static/'.$request->getParameter('extension').'/'.$request->getParameter('page'));

    return '';
  }
}

Here is the templates/ directory content:

templates/
  static/
    html/
      about.php
      contact.php
    xml/
      about.php
      contact.php

In the real life, we would also have changed the response content type for the XML format.

Here is a summary of all the possibilities we have seen in this tip:

// action
return $request->getParameter('page');
// template name
templates/staticabout.php

// action
$this->setTemplate($request->getParameter('page'));
// template name
templates/aboutSuccess.php

// action
$this->setTemplate('static/'.$request->getParameter('page'));
// template name
templates/static/aboutSuccess.php

// action
$this->setTemplate('static/'.$request->getParameter('page'));
return '';
// template name
templates/static/about.php

// action
$this->setTemplate('static/'.$request->getParameter('page'));
return '.'.$request->getParameter('extension');
// template name
templates/static/about.html.php

// action
$this->setTemplate('static/'.$request->getParameter('extension').'/'.$request->getParameter('page'));
return '';
// template name
templates/static/html/about.php