Integrating Mobile Money to Symfony - php

Question

I have a Symfony application which I will like to integrate mobile money into. The problem is I cannot add PHP code to twig files and I am a complete newbie to this kind of challenge. The code reads:
<?php
require_once '/path/to/monetbil-php/monetbil.php';
// Setup Monetbil arguments
Monetbil::setAmount(500);
Monetbil::setCurrency('XAF');
Monetbil::setLocale('en'); // Display language fr or en
Monetbil::setPhone('');
Monetbil::setCountry('');
Monetbil::setItem_ref('2536');
Monetbil::setPayment_ref('d4be3535f9cb5a7aff1f84fa94e6f040');
Monetbil::setUser(12);
Monetbil::setFirst_name('KAMDEM');
Monetbil::setLast_name('Jean');
Monetbil::setEmail('jean.kamdem#email.com');
// Start a payment
// You will be redirected to the payment page
Monetbil::startPayment();
I am looking at adding this to App/Resources/Views/members/dashboard.html.twig

Answer 1

Twig is only ment to render your output. Put your (php) logic in your controller and/or create your own service. From your controller you will also render your Twig template with the variables you need but only to render the output that you want to show to the users.

Answer 2

If you're using a framework like Symfony, you shouldn't use require_once (except some exceptions). Read about autoloading and dependency injections (Symfony.com has excellent articles).
For some reason, the monetbil-php library doesn't use composer. I don't know why, but I can imagine three reasons: they don't know what it is (hello developers, it's 2017!), they hate other developers or the library hasn't been updated for years. Despite the recent commits, it looks like a very outdated library (why still supporting PHP 5.2? That's from the dark ages!). Sorry for this slightly offtopic rant, back to the question.
For now, copy the files to your project, give the file a namespace and use it in your project. I've opened an issue here because I think the developers should add a composer file if they want their users to use their library in a framework like Symfony.
The PHP code should be in your controller* since you can't use PHP in Twig and even if you could, you shouldn't. Monetbil defines business logic, so it shouldn't be in a template.
To use it in your controller:
/**
* Pay the bill
*
* #Route("/pay/{id}", name="payment")
* #Method("POST")
* #param Request $request
* #param Order $product
*
* #return JsonResponse
* #throws \Exception
*/
public function payAction(Request $request, Order $product)
{
Monetbil::setAmount(500);
//..
Monetbil::startPayment();
}
According to the comment, startPayment() will redirect, so there's nothing to return to the Twig template.
(*) Business logic in your template is considered as a bad practice, but you should prevent putting too many business logic in a controller too. If you have this example working, try to read about services so you can define the business logic in a framework-agnostic way. It makes maintaining your application (unit tests, Symfony updates, maybe switch to another framework?) easier.