Native View Template

Bhitti includes a native PHP view system with no external template dependency.

Native templates are stored under:

resources/views/

and use the .view.php extension.

Render a view

Render native views through the response object:

return response()->view('welcome', [
    'title' => 'Bhitti',
]);

This loads:

resources/views/welcome.view.php

response()->view() renders the template and returns the response object.

You may return that string directly from a controller:

public function index(): string
{
    return response()->view('welcome', [
        'title' => 'Bhitti',
    ]);
}

Response status

response()->view() defaults to HTTP status 200.

Pass a non-200 status directly:

return response()->view(
    'errors.404',
    [],
    404
);

Or call status() after the renderer:

return response()
    ->view('errors.404')
    ->status(404);

Call status() after view(). Renderer methods default to 200 and will overwrite a status set before them.

Dot notation

Dot notation maps to directories.

return response()->view('auth.login');

loads:

resources/views/auth/login.view.php

For deeper directories:

return response()->view('admin.users.index');

loads:

resources/views/admin/users/index.view.php

Passing data

Values passed in the data array are available as normal PHP variables inside the template.

Controller:

return response()->view('users.profile', [
    'user' => $user,
    'title' => 'Profile',
]);

Template:

<h1><?= $this->e($title) ?></h1>
<p><?= $this->e($user->name) ?></p>

Escaping output

Use $this->e() for dynamic output inside a native view:

<h1><?= $this->e($title) ?></h1>

The global e() helper is also available:

<h1><?= e($title) ?></h1>

Both escape HTML special characters with UTF-8 encoding.

Only render unescaped HTML when the value is already trusted by your application.

Native PHP syntax

Bhitti native templates are regular PHP files. There is no additional template language to learn.

<?php if ($user): ?>
    <h1>Hello, <?= $this->e($user->name) ?></h1>
<?php endif; ?>

Loops use normal PHP syntax:

<ul>
    <?php foreach ($users as $user): ?>
        <li><?= $this->e($user->name) ?></li>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

Layouts and sections

A child view may select a layout and define one or more sections.

<?php $this->layout('layout.main'); ?>

<?php $this->start('content'); ?>
    <h1><?= $this->e($title) ?></h1>
<?php $this->end(); ?>

The layout can render the section:

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title><?= $this->e($title ?? 'Bhitti') ?></title>
</head>
<body>
    <main>
        <?= $this->section('content') ?>
    </main>
</body>
</html>

The layout above is stored at:

resources/views/layout/main.view.php

A default value may be provided when reading a section:

<?= $this->section('sidebar', '<p>No sidebar</p>') ?>

Render another native view

Inside a native template, $this->view() may be used to render another view directly:

<?php $this->view('partials.nav', [
    'user' => $user,
]); ?>

This is useful for small partial templates.

CSRF field

For forms protected by the CSRF middleware, use:

<form method="post" action="/profile">
    <?= $this->csrfField() ?>

    <button type="submit">Save</button>
</form>

This renders a hidden _csrf input using the current session CSRF token.

When to use native views

Native views are the default choice when you want:

no external template dependency;
direct PHP syntax;
minimal rendering overhead;
simple debugging;
layouts and sections without another template language.

For projects that prefer Twig syntax, Bhitti also provides optional Twig rendering through the twig() helper.