handlebartender

Allows you to render Handlebar templates anywhere in your backend logic.

Installing

npm i handlebartender

Basic Usage

//require handlebartender
var HBT = require('handlebartender');
 
//tell handlebartender where the templates are to compile
var templates = HBT.compile({
  templatePath: __dirname + '/some/template/path/'
});
 
//you now have two ways to render your templates with data
var myData = { title: 'Hey!'}
 
//You should omit the extension name
templates.render('templateName', myData);
 
//the above is the equivalent to
templates['templateName'](myData);

Partials

By default handlebartender will look in your templatePath under the subdirectory 'partials'. For this reason avoid storing templates that are not intended to be partials in this directory. You also have the option to pass your partialsPath to the compile method if you decide to store them somewhere else.

var templates = HBT.compile({
  templatePath: __dirname + '/some/template/path/',
  partialsPath: __dirname + '/another/path/'
});

You can also register a partial the old fashioned way by accessing the handlebartenders internal Handlebars instance. If you choose to do this, make sure you do it BEFORE you compile templates, otherwise the partial will not be available for use in your templates and you will error out.

var HBT = require('handlebartender');
HBT.Handlebars.registerPartial('header', '<h2>{{title}}</h2>');

Helpers

Adding helpers to handlebartenders is also simple. You can pass a key value pair of a helper name and function as the 'helper' option to the compile method. For example:

//make a helper we can use
 
var jsonHelper = function(context) {
  return JSON.stringify(context);
};
 
var templates = HBT.compile({
  templatePath: __dirname + '/some/template/path/',
  helpers: {
    json: jsonHelper
  }
});

As with partials, you can register a helper with handlebartenders internal Handlebars instance as well. When registering a partial via the built in Handlebars instance, you need to do this before compiling templates otherwise you will get an error when using it.

HBT.Handlebars.registerHelper('link', function(text, url) {
  text = HBT.Handlebars.Utils.escapeExpression(text);
  url  = HBT.Handlebars.Utils.escapeExpression(url);
 
  var result = '<a href="' + url + '">' + text + '</a>';
 
  return new HBT.Handlebars.SafeString(result);
});

Optional Arguments

partialsPath - defaults to templatePath + '/partials'

helpers - defaults to {}

extension - defaults to .hbs

Tests

npm test

There aren't a ton of tests right. But any contributions on this front are welcome.

On pre-1.0 version?

I have created a 0.0.8x branch for anyone interested in the old usage (https://github.com/battlejj/handlebartender/tree/v0.0.8), however, I will not be supporting it.