DRYML - a template engine 
A template engine for Node and Express that is compatible with EJS https://github.com/visionmedia/ejs yet has the power and view refactoring savvy of DRYML.
DRYML as a template language was originally developed by Tom Locke for the Rails template engine as part of the web app builder, Hobo. See http://hobocentral.net/manual/chapters/3_dryml.html and http://cookbook.hobocentral.net/manual/dryml-guide.
Installation
$ npm install dryml
Run tests:
$ npm test dryml
Usage Example
From String:
require('dryml');
dryml.render(str, options, function(err, buffer){
console.log(buffer.str);
});
For Express:
app.get('/', function(req, res){
dryml.renderView('index', options, res);
});
It is currently asynchronous, so does not work as standard Express view plugin.
Options
localsLocal variables objectscopeFunction execution contextdebugOutput sources and useful stringtrimWhitespaceRemoves all whitespace between tagscachetrue/false whether to use cached tags/taglibs, default: true, default can be set on dryml object
Tag definition
Basic Layout (Pre-refactor)
Defining a tag (like a inline partial, to be reused):
<def tag="page" attrs="title">
<html>
<head>
<title><%= title %></title>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Etc.
</script>
</head>
<body merge-attrs="*">
<div class="wrapper">
<tagbody/>
</div>
</body>
</html>
</def>
Note: Tags can be defined with/without prefixes, e.g. <myns:def tag="img"> is called by using <myns:img> is called, and <def tag="image"> is called by using <image> (standard HTML tag names not allowed)
Using a tag:
<page title="Welcome" class="welcome">
<h1>Welcome</h1>
<div class="content">
<p>Some Content</p>
</div>
<div class="navigation">
<ul>
<li><a href="/one">One</a></li>
<li><a href="/two">Two</a></li>
<li class="selected"><a href="/three">Three</li>
</ul>
</div>
</page>
Output:
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Etc.
</script>
</head>
<body class="welcome">
<div class="wrapper">
<h1>Welcome</h1>
<div class="content">
<p>Some Content</p>
</div>
<div class="navigation">
<ul>
<li><a href="/one">One</a></li>
<li><a href="/two">Two</a></li>
<li class="selected"><a href="/three">Three</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
After Refactor (Important)
Defining multiple tags (in separate taglib file):
<def tag="navigation" attrs="options,selected">
<ul>
<% for (var key in options) { %>
<li class="%{ (key == selected) ? 'selected' : '' }"><a href="#{ '/' + key }"><%= options[key] %></a></li>
<% } %>
<tagbody/>
</ul>
</def>
<def tag="page" attrs="title,navigation">
<html>
<head>
<title><%= title %></title>
</head>
<body merge-attrs="*">
<h1><%= title %></h1>
<div class="content">
<tagbody />
</div>
<div class="navigation">
<navigation options="#{ {one:'One', two:'Two', three:'Three'} }" selected="%{ navigation }"/>
</div>
</body>
</html>
</def>
Using a tag:
<taglib src="taglibfile" />
<page title="Welcome" navigation="three" class="welcome">
<p>Some Content</p>
</page>
Tag Libraries
A file containing tag definitions can be used to selectively include tags for each page.
<taglib src="relative/path" />
An included taglib can also use tags in taglibs it in turn includes. These tags are per default not included for use outside this taglib. You can specify for them to be included/exported wherever this taglib is included.
<taglib src="relative/path" include="true" />
(To make this the default behaviour, or for backward compatibility, pass an option of { includeAllTaglibs: true } when rendering.)
Just like you cannot (re)define a tag with the same name twice in the same dryml file, you cannot redefine an explicitly included/exported tag.
Locals, Attributes
Locals
Locals passed to render function will be available as local variables in this file,
and also as an object on the locals variable as an object, for if you are not sure
whether the variable will be defined in locals passed to the view.
Attributes
Attributes are treated similarly and will be available both as local variables, and as an
attributes variable. You can also pass in attributes directly from an object. These
would override individual attributes specified on the tag, e.g. if aAttrs.href == 'about:blank'
<a attrs="%{ aAttrs }" href="#">Blank</a>
results in:
<a href="about:blank">Blank</a>
This is useful if you have many attributes to pass to a tag, particularly defined tags.
Attributes can also be passed by enclosing contents in an attr tag within, e.g.
<a href="#">
<attr:title>About this page</attr:title>
This Page
</a>
This is also more useful with defined tags, where you may be outputting the contents to a block in layout, e.g.
<page>
<attr:footer>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Etc.
</script>
<attr:footer>
<p>Body text</p>
</page>
resulting in:
<html>
<body>
<p>Body text</p>
<hr/>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Etc.
</script>
</body>
</html>
Important Notes
DRYML templates need to be valid XML/XHTML, which means:
- Non-HTML tag content, such as within script/style/etc., must be enclosed in a CDATA tag.
Example:
<script>
<![CDATA[
$('body').append('<a href="/">Back</a>');
]]>
</script>
- Attributes must be escaped where appropriate.
Example:
<a href="javascript:$('body').append('<a href="/">Back</a<');">Text</a>
This applies only to 'hardcoded' content/values in the DRYML templates and does not apply to dynamically generated content.
License
(Hobo for Rails)
Copyright (c) 2008 Tom Locke
(The MIT License)
Copyright (c) 2011 Pieter Raubenheimer pieter@wavana.com
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.