Custom bundles versus AppBundle

When we use AppBundle as a code base, the app/ directory of our project can be seen as part of AppBundle. Sure, it has other files and folders that take care of other bundles available in the /vendor directory, for example, but we can benefit a lot from the app/ folder.

For example, if you look at the MyBundle/Resources folder, you will find two subfolders named Resources/config/ and Resources/views/, which hold service definitions (and other required settings in the future) and template files for that bundle.

However, with AppBundle, we already have a folder named app/, so conveniently, we can use the available app/config for our configuration needs and app/Resources/views for our templates. Using this approach, referencing these files are much easier.

Compare the render() method in indexAction() of each controller. In the AppBundle controller, we simply referenced the template file without mentioning the name of the bundle. When there is no bundle name, Symfony by default looks in the app/Resources/views directory to find the required template:

return $this->render('default/index.html.twig');

To check the contents of the app/Resources/views directory use the following command:

$ tree app/Resources/views/
app/Resources/views/
├── base.html.twig
└── default
 └── index.html.twig

In MyBundle, we have to mention the bundle name in the reference:

return $this->render('MyBundle:Default:index.html.twig');

We got two elements of MVC so far: Controller and View. Let's have a look at the big picture that we have now: