diff --git a/doc/Plugins.md b/doc/Plugins.md
index 62d06f1c56..24d403e1f6 100644
--- a/doc/Plugins.md
+++ b/doc/Plugins.md
@@ -274,7 +274,11 @@ $b is an array containing $nav from nav.php.
 ###'template_vars'
 is called before vars are passed to the template engine to render the page.
 The registered function can add,change or remove variables passed to template.
-$b is the array of vars pased to 'replace_macros()' function.
+$b is an array with:
+
+    'template' => filename of template
+    'vars' => array of vars passed to template
+
 
 
 Complete list of hook callbacks
diff --git a/include/friendica_smarty.php b/include/friendica_smarty.php
index b516926754..3c2dc7b915 100644
--- a/include/friendica_smarty.php
+++ b/include/friendica_smarty.php
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 require_once "object/TemplateEngine.php";
 require_once("library/Smarty/libs/Smarty.class.php");
+require_once "include/plugin.php";
 
 define('SMARTY3_TEMPLATE_FOLDER','templates');
 
@@ -39,19 +40,19 @@ class FriendicaSmarty extends Smarty {
 		}
 		return $this->fetch('file:' . $this->filename);
 	}
-	
+
 
 }
 
 class FriendicaSmartyEngine implements ITemplateEngine {
 	static $name ="smarty3";
-   	
+
     public function __construct(){
 		if(!is_writable('view/smarty3/')){
 			echo "<b>ERROR:</b> folder <tt>view/smarty3/</tt> must be writable by webserver."; killme();
 		}
-	} 
-    
+	}
+
 	// ITemplateEngine interface
 	public function replace_macros($s, $r) {
 		$template = '';
@@ -59,15 +60,24 @@ class FriendicaSmartyEngine implements ITemplateEngine {
 			$template = $s;
 			$s = new FriendicaSmarty();
 		}
+
+		// "middleware": inject variables into templates
+		$arr = [
+			"template"=> basename($s->filename),
+			"vars" => $r
+		];
+		call_hooks("template_vars", $arr);
+		$r = $arr['vars'];
+
 		foreach($r as $key=>$value) {
 			if($key[0] === '$') {
 				$key = substr($key, 1);
 			}
 			$s->assign($key, $value);
 		}
-		return $s->parsed($template);		
+		return $s->parsed($template);
 	}
-	
+
 	public function get_template_file($file, $root=''){
 		$a = get_app();
 		$template_file = get_template_file($a, SMARTY3_TEMPLATE_FOLDER.'/'.$file, $root);
diff --git a/include/text.php b/include/text.php
index a738a281f5..f89a64a570 100644
--- a/include/text.php
+++ b/include/text.php
@@ -19,10 +19,6 @@ function replace_macros($s,$r) {
 
 	$stamp1 = microtime(true);
 
-	// "middleware": inject variables into templates
-	call_hooks("template_vars", $r);
-
-
 	$a = get_app();
 
 	$t = $a->template_engine();