Undefined property - Symfony2 - php

Question

I'm using Symfony2. My controller finds some values - like categories, created by the and gives them to the template. The problem is that if the user hasn't any created categories yet, I want to display a massage to invite him to create categories.
Here is the code:
if($number_of_categories == 0){
$newcommer = true;
//Here the template doesn't need any variables, because it only displays
// "Please first add some categories"
} else {
$newcommer = false;
//Here the variables, which I give to the template
//are filled with meaningfull values
}
return $this->render('AcmeBudgetTrackerBundle:Home:index.html.twig', array(
'newcommer' => $newcommer,
'expenses' => $expenses_for_current_month,
'first_category' => $first_category,
'sum_for_current_month' => $sum_for_current_month,
'budget_for_current_month' => $budget_for_current_month
));
The problem is that if the user doesn't have categories I don't have with what to fill the variables, so I have to write something like this:
//What I want to avoid is this:
$expenses_for_current_month = null;
$first_category = null;
$sum_for_current_month = null;
$budget_for_current_month = null;
just to avoid Notice: Undefined variable ...
Is there a cleaner solution to achieve this? There isn't a way to dynamically generate the count of variables, given to the template, is there? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Here a simple solution (if I understood your problem) :
$template = 'AcmeBudgetTrackerBundle:Home:index.html.twig';
if ($number_of_categories == 0){
//Here the template doesn't need any variables, because it only displays
// "Please first add some categories"
return $this->render($template, array(
'newcommer' => true,
));
} else {
//Here the variables, which I give to the template
//are filled with meaningfull values
return $this->render($template, array(
'newcommer' => false,
'expenses' => $expenses_for_current_month,
'first_category' => $first_category,
'sum_for_current_month' => $sum_for_current_month,
'budget_for_current_month' => $budget_for_current_month
));
}
And if you want a cleaner solution to manage your Template, you cna use the annotation #Template() (You just have to return an array to pass to the view) :
// ...
use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\Template;
class MyController extends Controller
{
/**
* #Route("/my_route.html")
* #Template("AcmeBudgetTrackerBundle:Home:index.html.twig")
*/
public function indexAction()
{
// ...
if ($number_of_categories == 0){
return array(
'newcommer' => true,
);
} else {
//Here the variables, which I give to the template
//are filled with meaningfull values
return array(
'newcommer' => false,
'expenses' => $expenses_for_current_month,
'first_category' => $first_category,
'sum_for_current_month' => $sum_for_current_month,
'budget_for_current_month' => $budget_for_current_month
);
}
}
}