Download the PHP package nystudio107/craft-autocomplete without Composer

Autocomplete for Craft CMS 3.x, 4.x & 5.x

Provides Twig template IDE autocompletion for Craft CMS and plugin/module variables and element types.

Works with PhpStorm provided the Symfony Support plugin is installed. VSCode currently does not support intellisense for Twig extensions.

While Craft 3.7.8 added autocompletion for Craft’s global Twig variables, this does not include autocompletion for plugins and modules that provide their own variables or element types.

Requirements

This package requires Craft CMS 3.x, 4.x, or 5.x

Usage

1. Install the package using composer, adding it to require-dev:

2. Ensure that the Symfony Support plugin for PhpStorm is installed and enabled by checking the Enabled for Project checkbox in the Symfony plugin settings.

3. Ensure that devMode is enabled.

4. Visit the Craft site on which the package is installed to generate the autocomplete classes in storage/runtime/compiled_classes/ or run the following console command.

Once your IDE indexes the autocomplete classes, autocompletion for Craft and all plugins and modules will immediately become available in your Twig templates.

Additionally, autocompletion for element types provided by both Craft and plugins/modules is available, for example: asset, entry, category, tag, user, product (if Craft Commerce is installed), etc.

N.B.: If you are using a Docker-ized setup, ensure that storage/runtime/compiled_classes/ is bind mounted on your client machine, so your IDE can find the classes to index them

Regenerating Autocomplete Classes

The autocomplete classes are all generated any time Craft executes (whether via frontend request or via CLI), if they do not yet exist.

The autocomplete classes are all regenerated every time you install or uninstall a plugin.

If you manually add a plugin or module that registers variables on the Craft global variable, you can force the regeneratation of the autocomplete classes by running the following console command.

...or since the autocomplete classes are automatically regenerated if they don’t exist, you can clear the Runtime caches with:

Extending

You can extend the values that a Generator class adds using the EVENT_BEFORE_GENERATE event.

In addition to the provided autocomplete generator types, you can write your own by implementing the GeneratorInterface class or extending the abstract Generator class (recommended).

To register your generator type, listen for the EVENT_REGISTER_AUTOCOMPLETE_GENERATORS event and add your class to the types property.

See the included generators for guidance on how to create your own.

How It Works

On the quest for autocomplete in the PhpStorm IDE, Andrew wrote an article years ago entitled Auto-Complete Craft CMS 3 APIs in Twig with PhpStorm

This worked on principles similar to how Craft Autocomplete works, but it was a manual process.
Ben and Andrew thought they could do better.

Bootstrapping Yii2 Extension

This package is a Yii2 extension (and a module) that bootstraps itself.

This means that it’s automatically loaded with Craft, without you having to install it or configure it in any way.

It only ever does anything provided that devMode is enabled, so it’s fine to keep it installed on production.

The Generated Autocomplete Classes

All Craft Autocomplete does is generate source code files, very similar to how Craft itself generates a CustomFieldBehavior class in storage/runtime/compiled_classes

The code that is generated by Craft Autocomplete is never run, however. It exists just to allow your IDE to index it for autocomplete purposes.

During the bootstrapping process, the package generates two classes, AutocompleteTwigExtension and AutocompleteVariable, if they do not already exist or if a Craft plugin was just installed or uninstalled.

The AutocompleteTwigExtension class is generated by evaluating all the Twig globals that have been registered. The AutocompleteVariable class is generated by dynamically evaluating the global Craft variable, including any variables that have been registered on it (by plugins and modules).

Here’s an example of what the files it generates might look like, stored in storage/runtime/compiled_classes:

AutocompleteVariable.php:

AutocompleteVariable.php:

The Symfony Support Plugin for PhpStorm

The other half of the equation is on the PhpStorm IDE end of things, provided by the Symfony Support plugin.

One of the things this PhpStorm plugin (written in Java) does is parse your code for Twig extensions that add global variables.

It’s important to note that it does not actually evaluate any PHP code. Instead, it parses all Twig extension PHP classes looking for a getGlobals() method that returns a key/value array via a return [] statement and makes their values available as global variables in Twig for autocompletion.

The reason this has never "just worked" in the history of Craft CMS up until version 3.7.8 is that Craft returned an array as a variable, rather than as a static key/value pair array, so the Symfony plugin could not parse it.

If a plugin or module (or even Craft pre 3.7.8) does not return a key/value array directly then autocompletion simply will not work (Andrew had to discover this by source-diving the Symfony Support plugin):

Once PhpStorm has indexed these two classes, autocompletion for Craft and all plugins and modules immediately becomes available in your Twig templates, just like magic!

Hat tip

Hat tip to Oliver Stark for his work on ostark/craft-prompter.

Brought to you by nystudio107 and PutYourLightsOn.