adaptivecards-templating

Adaptive Card Data Binding and Templating Engine for JavaScript (Preview)

This library implements a JSON-to-JSON templating/data-bing engine. While it is designed to be used with Adaptive Cards, it is not dependent on Adaptive Cards and can therefore be used in many contexts and applications.

For more information about the data binding language implemented by this library, please refer to GitHub

Hello World example

Here is a simplistic "Hello World" example on how to use the library to generate an Adaptive Card using a template bound to a data object:

// Define a template payload
var templatePayload = {
	"type": "AdaptiveCard",
	"version": "1.0",
	"body": [
        {
            "type": "TextBlock",
            "text": "Hello {name}!"
        }
    ]
};

// Create a Template instamce from the template payload
var template = new ACData.Template(templatePayload);

// Create a data binding context, and set its $root property to the
// data object to bind the template to
var context = new ACData.EvaluationContext();
context.$root = {
    "name": "Adaptive Cards"
};

// "Expand" the template - this generates the final Adaptive Card,
// ready to render
var card = template.expand(context);

// Render the card
var adaptiveCard = new AdaptiveCards.AdaptiveCard();
adaptiveCard.parse(card);

document.getElementById('exampleDiv').appendChild(adaptiveCard.render());

This example is implemented in the example.html file.

Built-in functions

This library provides a set of built-in functions for use in data binding expressions. Note that any function parameter can itself be an expression.

substr

Extracts a substring from a string.

substr(s: string, index: number, count: number)

Parameter	Description
s	The input string
index	The index (zero based) where to strat the extraction
count	The number of characters to extract

JSON.parse

Converts a string representing JSON data into an object to make it possible to access its individual properties within an expression.

JSON.parse(input: string)

Parameter	Description
input	The input string. Must be a valid JSOJN payload.

if

Returns a value that depends on whether a condition evaluates to true or false.

if(condition: boolean, ifTrue: any, ifFalse: any)

Parameter	Description
condition	The condition to evaluate.
ifTrue	The value to return if the condition evaluates to true.
ifFalse	The value to return if the condition evaluates to false.

toUpper

Converts a string to its upper case representation.

toUpper(input: string)

Parameter	Description
input	The string to convert.

toLower

Converts a string to its lower case representation.

toLower(input: string)

Parameter	Description
input	The string to convert.

Date.format

Formats an ISO 8601 date/time string into a human redable date.

Date.format(input: string, format: "long" | "short" | "compact")

Parameter	Description
input	The string to format.
format	The format to use. Must be "short", "long" or "compact". Defaults to "compact"

Time.format

Formats an ISO 8601 date/time string into a human redable time.

Time.format(input: string)

Parameter	Description
input	The string to format.

Custom functions

Applications can add support for custom functions with the engine, in order to enable additional scenarios. Custom functions need to be registered with the EvaluationContext:

var template = new ACData.Template(templatePayload);

// Create a data binding context, and set its $root property to the
// data object to bind the template to
var context = new ACData.EvaluationContext();
context.$root = {
    "name": "Adaptive Cards"
};

// Register a custom "add" function that adds two numbers
context.registerFunction(
    "add",
    (a, b) => {
        if (typeof a === "number" && typeof b === "number") {
            return a + b
        }
        else {
            return undefined;
        }
    }
)

// "Expand" the template - this generates the final Adaptive Card,
// ready to render
var card = template.expand(context);

// Render the card
var adaptiveCard = new AdaptiveCards.AdaptiveCard();
adaptiveCard.parse(card);

document.getElementById('exampleDiv').appendChild(adaptiveCard.render());