[Helma-user] Javascript Template Engine, Sub Templates

[Juerg Lehni]

I added the possibility of sub templates to my template engine today,  
as a proof of concept:

http://dev.helma.org/Wiki/JavaScript+Template+Engine/

The syntax and naming is not fixed, but so far it works well for me,  
so I thought I should share it.

This also had the side-effect that templates can now be created from  
strings like this:

new Template(str);

I think it should be very easy to create a JS only version from the  
current code that could run on the client side.

One discussion that is still open is the problem with closing tags  
for nested content (</%>). In my email from 27.10.06 that remained  
unreplied so far I wrote about this, among many other open template  
questions:

http://grazia.helma.at/pipermail/helma-dev/2006-October/003166.html

- Nested content: So far it has been said they should use <% end %>
instead of </%> as the end tag, for more consistency. I just realized
today why this is not as easy as we hoped, and why I have come up
with the current scheme. Look for example at this situation:

<% foreach (value in list) %>
	<% value.macro %>
	Some HTML
<% end %>

It would be good to hear reactions about this problem, and also about  
the other questions in my post.

Bellow some examples of sub templates. Comments are welcome.

Jürg

---

Definition:

   <% template "name">
   This is a sub-template. It can call <% macros %> and write <%=  
param.value %> too!
   </%>

Rendering:

   <% render "name" value="variables" %>

Rendering of normal templates:

   <% this.render "name" foo="bar" %>

Definition and rendering into a variable in one command:

   <% set "text">
   Render this text into 'name'. <% macros %> can be called.
   </%>

This can now be used like a normal variable, and for example be  
passed as
the default value in another macro:

   <%= text %>

   <% do_something default=text %>