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What is php-text-template?

sebastianbergmann/php-text-template — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

7,437PHPAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

In one sentence

A small standalone PHP library for filling placeholder variables into text templates at runtime, useful for generating emails, config files, or any structured text where the layout stays fixed but values change.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((php-text-template))
    What it does
      Fills text placeholders
      Generates structured text
      Runtime value substitution
    Use cases
      Email body generation
      Config file generation
      Code boilerplate
    Setup
      Composer install
      Standalone package
      Dev or prod dependency
    Context
      Part of PHPUnit
      Sebastian Bergmann
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Code map

Detail Auto

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Generate personalised email bodies by defining a template with placeholders and substituting recipient-specific values at send time

USE CASE 2

Produce configuration files or code boilerplate from templates where only certain values differ per output

What is it built with?

PHPComposer

How does it compare?

sebastianbergmann/php-text-templatesymfony/var-dumpersymfony/css-selector
Stars7,4377,4407,441
LanguagePHPPHPPHP
Setup difficultyeasyeasyeasy
Complexity2/51/52/5
Audiencedeveloperdeveloperdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

README includes no usage examples, consult the source code or the PHPUnit codebase to understand the template syntax.

So what is it?

This is a small PHP library that provides a simple text template engine. A template engine lets you define a block of text with placeholder variables in it, then fill in those placeholders with actual values at runtime to produce the final output. This is useful for generating things like email bodies, code files, configuration files, or any structured text where the layout stays the same but certain values change each time it is used. The library is part of the PHPUnit ecosystem, maintained by Sebastian Bergmann, who also maintains the PHPUnit testing framework for PHP. It is used internally by PHPUnit to generate code and output, but it is published as a standalone package so any PHP project can use it independently without pulling in PHPUnit itself. Installing it requires Composer, the standard PHP package manager. One command adds it as a project dependency. If the library is only needed during development, such as for generating test output or boilerplate code, it can be added as a development-only dependency instead, which keeps it out of production builds. The README is short and does not include usage examples or a description of the template syntax. For details on how to use it, you would need to look at the source code directly or find examples in the PHPUnit codebase. The library is available on Packagist, the public PHP package registry, under the name phpunit/php-text-template.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Using sebastianbergmann/php-text-template, show me how to define a template string with placeholder variables and render it with a set of substitution values in PHP.
Prompt 2
How do I install php-text-template via Composer as a development-only dependency, and when would I choose dev-only over a regular dependency?
Prompt 3
I want to use php-text-template to generate HTML email bodies in PHP. How do I load a template file, define placeholders, and produce the final rendered string?

Frequently asked questions

What is php-text-template?

A small standalone PHP library for filling placeholder variables into text templates at runtime, useful for generating emails, config files, or any structured text where the layout stays fixed but values change.

What language is php-text-template written in?

Mainly PHP. The stack also includes PHP, Composer.

How hard is php-text-template to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is php-text-template for?

Mainly developer.

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