consolidate

What is consolidate?

The consolidate npm package is a template engine consolidation library for Node.js. It allows developers to use various template engines with a unified API, making it easier to switch between them or support multiple engines in a project.

What are consolidate's main functionalities?

Template Engine Agnostic

Consolidate.js works with many template engines, allowing you to define the engine you want to use for rendering your views. In this example, Swig is used as the template engine for an Express app.

const cons = require('consolidate');
const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.engine('html', cons.swig);
app.set('view engine', 'html');
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');

app.get('/', function (req, res) {
  res.render('index', { title: 'Consolidate.js' });
});

Asynchronous Template Rendering

Consolidate.js supports asynchronous rendering of templates. Here, Mustache is used to render a template file asynchronously, and the result is logged to the console.

const cons = require('consolidate');

cons.mustache('views/index.mustache', { title: 'Consolidate.js' }, function(err, html){
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(html);
});

Caching Templates

Consolidate.js allows you to enable caching for template engines that support it, which can improve performance. In this example, Dust's caching feature is enabled.

const cons = require('consolidate');
const app = require('express')();

app.engine('dust', cons.dust);

cons.requires.dust.cache = true;

app.set('view engine', 'dust');
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');

// ... rest of your app

Other packages similar to consolidate

express-handlebars

Express-handlebars is a Handlebars view engine for Express which doesn't support multiple engines but provides a robust solution for Handlebars templates specifically, including features like partials and helpers.

ejs

EJS is a simple templating language that lets you generate HTML markup with plain JavaScript. It is not an engine consolidation library but a standalone template engine.

pug

Formerly known as Jade, Pug is a high-performance template engine heavily influenced by Haml and implemented with JavaScript for Node.js and browsers. Like EJS, it is not a consolidation library but a standalone engine.

README

Consolidate.js

Template engine consolidation library.

Installation

$ npm install consolidate

Supported template engines

• dust (website)
• eco
• ejs
• haml (website)
• haml-coffee (website)
• handlebars (website)
• hogan (website)
• jade (website)
• jazz
• jqtpl (website)
• liquor
• mustache
• QEJS
• swig (website)
• underscore (website)
• walrus (website)
• whiskers

NOTE: you must still install the engines you wish to use, add them to your package.json dependencies.

API

All templates supported by this library may be rendered using the signature (path[, locals], callback) as shown below, which happens to be the signature that Express 3.x supports so any of these engines may be used within Express.

NOTE: All this example code uses cons.swig for the swig template engine. Replace swig with whatever templating you are using. For exmaple, use cons.hogan for hogan.js, cons.jade for jade, etc. console.log(cons) for the full list of identifiers.

var cons = require('consolidate');
cons.swig('views/page.html', { user: 'tobi' }, function(err, html){
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(html);
});

Or without options / local variables:

var cons = require('consolidate');
cons.swig('views/page.html', function(err, html){
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(html);
});

To dynamically pass the engine, simply use the subscript operator and a variable:

var cons = require('consolidate')
  , name = 'swig';

cons[name]('views/page.html', { user: 'tobi' }, function(err, html){
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(html);
});

Caching

To enable caching simply pass { cache: true }. Engines may use this option to cache things reading the file contents, compiled Functions etc. Engines which do not support this may simply ignore it. All engines that consolidate.js implements I/O for will cache the file contents, ideal for production environments.

var cons = require('consolidate');
cons.swig('views/page.html', { user: 'tobi' }, function(err, html){
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(html);
});

Express 3.x example

var express = require('express')
  , cons = require('consolidate')
  , app = express();

// assign the swig engine to .html files
app.engine('html', cons.swig);

// set .html as the default extension 
app.set('view engine', 'html');
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');

var users = [];
users.push({ name: 'tobi' });
users.push({ name: 'loki' });
users.push({ name: 'jane' });

app.get('/', function(req, res){
  res.render('index', {
    title: 'Consolidate.js'
  });
});

app.get('/users', function(req, res){
  res.render('users', {
    title: 'Users',
    users: users
  });
});

app.listen(3000);
console.log('Express server listening on port 3000');

Running tests

Install dev deps:

$ npm install -d

Run the tests:

$ make test

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2011 TJ Holowaychuk <[e-mail]>

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.

Changelog

0.4.0 / 2012-07-30

• add doT support [sannis]
• add mustache support [ForbesLindesay]
• add walrus support [kagd]