Viewbridge

Shares views or templates between the server and client, making client side template pre-compilation and/or server side view pre-rendering easy.

Only server side views/templates specified will be compiled and exported.

To see in action look at the examples.

Engines currently supported:

• Jade
• Hogan (mustache)
• EJS

Serverside View File

The attribute comment, //@viewbridge, signifies that Viewbridge should precompile a clientside function for this view. views/user/status.jade

//@viewbridge
 
h1= title

Run Viewbridge

There is a --watch option for development.

$ viewbridge --engine jade --output assets/js/templates.js --watch

In the Browser

The template function's namespace will mimic its serverside path.

<script src="assets/js/templates.js"></script>
<script>
  var html = viewbridge.user.status({title: 'Just North of Awesome.'});
  // html => "<h1>Just North of Awesome</h1>"
</script> 

Viewbridge Command Line Application

Install

$ npm install -g viewbridge

Usage

Usage: viewbridge --engine engine_name [options]
 
Options:
 
  -h, --help                   output usage information
  -V, --version                output the version number
  -e, --engine <engine>        Template engine. Required.
  -d, --dir <dir>              Directory of view files. Default is current directory.
  -v, --views <v1,v2,..>       Views to compile.
  -a, --all-views              Compile all views.
  -x, --ext <extension>        File extension of view files.
  -o, --output <output>        Output file path.
  -R, --no-runtime             Do not include the engine's runtime.
  -n, --namespace <namespace>  Clientside namespace. Default is `viewbridge`
  -w, --watch                  Compile templates when files change.

Configuration File

Instead of specifying options at the command line, you can use a JSON configuration of your options.

The file must be named viewbridge.json and it must be placed in the current working directory (where viewbridge is being executed from the CLI).

See example in the tests here.

Then, call viewbridge from the command line with no options (or just the --watch option) to use the options from the configuration file.

API

Install

$ npm install viewbridge

var viewbridge = require('viewbridge');

viewbridge(options, callback)

options properties:

• engine: Required. Template engine.
  • jade, hogan, ejs
• dir: Path to root of views/templates directory. Default is current working directory.
• views: Array of views to compile functions for. This option can be used instead of Viewbridge attribute comments. Only views specified by this option will be exported.
• allviews: Compiles all views regardless of attribute comments or views option.
• output: JS file to create.
• namespace: Clientside namespace. Default is viewbridge. No limit on how deep it can go (eg myapp.foo.templates). Checks to see if a namespace exists before creating a new one.
• ext: File extension. Defaults are Jade:.jade, Hogan:.html, EJS:.ejs
• runtime: Include the template engines runtime JS. Default is true. If false you will have to include it yourself separately.

callback(err, info)

• err Error if there was one. Otherwise null.
• info properties:
  • file: The file created if the output option was set.
  • javascript: The generated JS as a string.

Viewbridge Attribute Comments

Placing an attribute comment in your template signifies that Viewbridge should compile a clientside function for it.

Viewbridge will also create templates for views specifed by the views option in either the CLI app or the exposed function.

Jade

//@viewbridge
//-@viewbridge

Hogan (Mustache)

{{!@viewbridge }}

EJS

<%/*@viewbridge */%>
<%
  //@viewbridge
%>

Examples

Assume the following directory structure and files for the following examples. (Vanilla Express app)

-myapp/
  app.js
  +routes/
  -public/
    +images/
    +javascripts/
    +stylesheets/
  -views/
    about.jade
    index.jade
    user.jade
    +status/
    -favorites/
      favorite.jade
      index.jade
      stats.jade

CLI

$ viewbridge --dir ~/myapp/views \
             --engine hogan \
             --ext .hjs \
             --output ~/myapp/public/javascripts/mytemplates.js \
             --watch

Any Hogan templates under ~/myapp/views with an extension of .hjs and an attribute comment {{! @viewbridge }} will have a precompiled function made for it in ~/myapp/public/javascripts/mytemplates.js. The output file will be updated as changes are made under the views directory.

API

Node.js

var viewbridge = require('viewbridge');
 
var options = {
  dir: '~/myapp/views'
, engine: 'jade'
, namespace: 'myapp.templates'
, output: '~/myapp/public/javascripts/mytemplates.js'
, views: [
    'user'
  , 'favorites/index' // Must specify index
  , 'favorites/stats'
  ]
};
 
viewbridge(options, function(err, info) {
  // ...
});

Browser

<script src="javascripts/mytemplates.js"></script>
<script>
  myapp.templates.user({ /*..data..*/ });
 
  myapp.templates.favorites.index({ /*..data..*/ });
 
  myapp.templates.favorites.stats({ /*..data..*/ });
</script> 

Notes

• Jade's block, extend, yield, include, etc. do not work clientside.
• Jade's mixins do work.

Change Log

0.4.2

• Refactoring and code improvement.
• If views option is specified, only those views will be pre-compiled and exported despite any @viewbridge comments.

0.4.1

• Bug fix.

0.4.0

• Node version 0.10.x now required
• Updated dependencies