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

@ladjs/consolidate

Modern and maintained fork of the template engine consolidation library. Maintained and supported by Forward Email https://forwardemail.net, the 100% open-source and privacy-focused email service.

NOTE: This package @ladjs/consolidate also mirrors to consolidate on npm, however you should upgrade to @ladjs/consolidate as we may deprecate consolidate in the future.

Install

npm install @ladjs/consolidate

Engines

Some package has the same key name, @ladjs/consolidate will load them according to the order number. By example for dust, @ladjs/consolidate will try to use in this order: dust, dustjs-helpers and dustjs-linkedin. If dust is installed, dustjs-linkedin will not be used by @ladjs/consolidate.

Name cons.*	Package Name / Order	Website / State
atpl	npm install atpl	-
bracket	npm install bracket-template	-
dot	npm install dot	(website)
dust	npm install dust (1)	(website) / (unmaintained) See: dustjs-linkedin
dust	npm install dustjs-helpers (2) or npm install dustjs-linkedin (3)	(website)
eco	npm install eco	/!\ Security issue
ect	npm install ect	(website)
ejs	npm install ejs	(website)
hamlet	npm install hamlet	-
hamljs	npm install hamljs	-
haml-coffee	npm install haml-coffee	-
handlebars	npm install handlebars	(website)
hogan	npm install hogan.js	(website)
htmling	npm install htmling	-
jade	npm install jade	(website) / (renamed pug)
jazz	npm install jazz	-
jqtpl	npm install jqtpl	(deprecated)
just	npm install just	-
liquid	npm install tinyliquid	(website) will never add any new features
liquor	npm install liquor	-
lodash	npm install lodash	(website)
marko	npm install marko	(website)
mote	npm install mote	(website)
mustache	npm install mustache	-
nunjucks	npm install nunjucks	(website)
plates	npm install plates	-
pug	npm install pug	(website) / (formerly jade)
qejs	npm install qejs	-
ractive	npm install ractive	-
razor	npm install razor	-
react	npm install react	-
slm	npm install slm	-
squirrelly	npm install squirrelly	(website)
swig	npm install swig (1)	(unmaintained) See: swig-templates
swig	npm install swig-templates (2)	-
teacup	npm install teacup	-
templayed	npm install templayed	(website)
toffee	npm install toffee	-
twig	npm install twig	(wiki)
twing	npm install twing	(website)
underscore	npm install underscore	(website)
vash	npm install vash	-
velocityjs	BETA	(website)
walrus	npm install walrus	(website)
whiskers	npm install 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 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 example, use cons.hogan for hogan.js, cons.pug for pug, etc. console.log(cons) for the full list of identifiers.

const cons = require('@ladjs/consolidate');

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

Or without options / local variables:

const cons = require('@ladjs/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:

const cons = require('@ladjs/consolidate');

const name = 'swig';

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

Promises

Additionally, all templates optionally return a promise if no callback function is provided. The promise represents the eventual result of the template function which will either resolve to a string, compiled from the template, or be rejected. Promises expose a then method which registers callbacks to receive the promise's eventual value and a catch method which the reason why the promise could not be fulfilled. Promises allow more synchronous-like code structure and solve issues like race conditions.

const cons = require('@ladjs/consolidate');

cons.swig('views/page.html', { user: 'tobi' })
  .then(console.log)
  .catch(console.error);

Async/await

const cons = require('@ladjs/consolidate');

const html = await cons.swig('views/page.html', { user: 'tobi' });
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 implements I/O for will cache the file contents, ideal for production environments. When using consolidate directly: cons.swig('views/page.html', { user: 'tobi', cache: true }, callback); Using supported Express versions: app.locals.cache = true or set NODE_ENV to "production" and Express will do this for you.

Express example

const express = require('express');
const cons = require('@ladjs/consolidate');
const 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');

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

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
  res.render('index', {
    title: '@ladjs/consolidate'
  });
});

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

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

Template Engine Instances

Template engines are exposed via the cons.requires object, but they are not instantiated until you've called the cons[engine].render() method. You can instantiate them manually beforehand if you want to add filters, globals, mixins, or other engine features.

const cons = require('@ladjs/consolidate');
const nunjucks = require('nunjucks');

// add nunjucks to requires so filters can be
// added and the same instance will be used inside the render method
cons.requires.nunjucks = nunjucks.configure();

cons.requires.nunjucks.addFilter('foo', function() {
  return 'bar';
});

Notes

• If you're using Nunjucks, please take a look at the exports.nunjucks.render function in lib/consolidate.js. You can pass your own engine/environment via options.nunjucksEnv, or if you want to support Express you can pass options.settings.views, or if you have another use case, pass options.nunjucks (see the code for more insight).
• You can pass partials with options.partials
• For using template inheritance with nunjucks, you can pass a loader with options.loader.
• To use filters with tinyliquid, use options.filters and specify an array of properties, each of which is a named filter function. A filter function takes a string as a parameter and returns a modified version of it.
• To use custom tags with tinyliquid, use options.customTags to specify an array of tag functions that follow the tinyliquid custom tag definition.
• The default directory used with the include tag with tinyliquid is the current working directory. To override this, use options.includeDir.
• React To render content into an HTML base template (eg. index.html of your React app), pass the path of the template with options.base.

Contributors

Name	Website
Forward Email	https://forwardemail.net
TJ Holowaychuk

License

MIT © TJ Holowaychuk