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razorleaf

Razor Leaf is an HTML template engine for Node.js.

Features

  • automatic escaping

  • template inheritance

  • recursive macros

  • conditional attributes and classes

  • no extraneous rendered whitespace

  • no dependencies*

  • unrestricted JavaScript expressions and inline code; no sandboxes to work around

* This might change.

Example

example.rl:

doctype html
    head
        meta charset: "utf-8"
        meta name: "viewport" content: "initial-scale=1"

        title "Example"
    body
        h1 "Hello, world!"

        % const { left, right } = data;
        p "#{left} × #{right} = #{left * right}"

example.js:

const DirectoryLoader = require('razorleaf/directory-loader');
 
const templateLoader = new DirectoryLoader(__dirname);
const template = templateLoader.load('example');
 
console.log(
    template({
        left: 9,
        right: 12,
    })
);

Output:

Hello, world!

9 × 12 = 108

Syntax

Elements

Elements are defined by their names only; no other special character is necessary.

p

<p></p>

Void elements are recognized automatically.

meta

<meta>

Strings

Strings are double-quoted and escaped for use in HTML as needed. Backslash escape codes can be used as in JavaScript. No whitespace is added around strings.

"--> A string <--\n" "A string containing \"double-quotes\""

--&gt; A string &lt;--
A string containing "double-quotes"

Strings can also contain interpolated sections, delimited by #{ and }. #{ can be escaped with a leading backslash; } doesn’t require escaping.

"#{6 * 7}"

42

If an exclamation mark precedes the string, it and any of its interpolated sections will not be escaped.

!"<!-- A significant comment -->"

<!-- A significant comment -->

Attributes

Attributes are marked up using the syntax name:. An attribute name can, optionally, be followed by a string to be used as its value; if a value isn’t provided, the attribute is assumed to be boolean (and present). Note that a string used as an attribute’s value cannot be “raw” — that is, cannot be preceded by an exclamation mark.

meta charset: "utf-8"

<meta charset="utf-8">

Classes

Classes are marked up with a leading period, as in .class.

fieldset .upload-meta
    input.required

<fieldset class="upload-meta"><input class="required"></fieldset>

Hierarchy

Hierarchy in Razor Leaf is defined using indentation. For example:

doctype

html
    head
        meta charset: "utf-8"

        title "Example"

        link
            rel: "stylesheet"
            type: "text/css"
            href: "stylesheets/example.css"

    body
        p id: "introduction"
            "This template is a brief example of hierarchy."

<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><meta charset="utf-8"><title>Example</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheets/example.css"></head><body><p id="introduction">This template is a brief example of hierarchy.</p></body></html>

Content found after an element on the same line will also be considered that element’s content.

Comments

Comments begin with # and continue to the end of the line. They do not affect the rendered HTML.

Code

Code blocks begin with % and continue to the end of the line. Code blocks may contain content (strings, elements, other code blocks, and special blocks, but not attributes); if they do, they are treated as blocks and wrapped in curly braces.

For example, this template:

% function countTo(n)
    % for (var i = 1; i <= n; i++)
        "#{i}"

% countTo(5);

might compile to this JavaScript:

function countTo(n) {
    for (var i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
        output += i;
    }
}
 
countTo(5);

Special blocks

Some names define special blocks. These are:

  • doctype: Inserts <!DOCTYPE html>.
  • if (condition): Includes its content only if condition is met.
  • elif (condition): Can immediately follow an if or an elif.
  • else: Can immediately follow an if or an elif.
  • for (identifier) of (collection): Includes its content for each element of the array or array-like object collection.
  • for (identifier), (index) of (collection): Allows the index variable in a for loop to be named.
  • include (name): Loads and includes another template.
  • extends (name): Loads another template and replaces its blocks. A template that extends another template cannot have any content outside of block actions.
  • block (name): Defines a replaceable block.
  • replace (name): Replaces a block.
  • append (name): Appends to a block.

API

new razorleaf.DirectoryLoader(root, [options])

Creates a loader that maps template names to files with the .rl extension in the directory located at root.

razorleaf.DirectoryLoader.prototype.load(name)

Returns a template object loaded from the root directory.

razorleaf.compile(template, [options])

Compiles a template string into a function. The compiled function takes one argument, data, which can be used (under that name) in the template.

Options

  • debug: If true, warnings will be printed. (In a later version, this will enable error rewriting.)
  • load(name): A function that returns a parsed template represented by name. This is filled automatically by most loaders.
  • globals: An object representing the global variables that should be made available to the template.

how? learn more

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Keywords

template

Dependencies

None

Dependents (1)

splash