manila

Manila

Manila is a no-frills template engine for Node 4+.

Version 2.0 brings massive performance improvements and an even simpler syntax. Thanks to John Resig for inspiring this approach.

Installation

npm install manila

Use with Express

// index.js
const app = require('express')(),
	manila = require('manila')();

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
	res.render('index', {
		message: 'Hello, world!'
	});
});

// Pass Manila to Express
app.engine('mnla', manila);
// Register Manila as a view engine
app.set('view engine', 'mnla');
// Set the views directory
app.set('views', './views');

app.listen(3000);

<!-- views/index.mnla -->
<h1><<message>></h1>

Run node index and open http://localhost:3000 in your browser to see the rendered result.

Use with vanilla Node

// index.js
const http = require('http'),
	manila = require('manila')();

http.createServer((req, res) => {

	manila('index.mnla', { message: 'Hello, world!' }, function(err, html) {
			res.writeHead(200, 'text/html; charset=UTF-8');
			res.end(html);
		});

}).listen(3000);

<!-- views/index.mnla -->
<h1><<message>></h1>

Promise Support

When calling manila, you can either provide a callback or use a promise. The following is effectively the same as the example above:

// index.js
const http = require('http'),
	manila = require('manila')();

http.createServer((req, res) => {

	manila('index.mnla', { message: 'Hello, world!' })
		.then(html => {
			res.writeHead(200, 'text/html; charset=UTF-8');
			res.end(html);
		}).catch(err => {
        	console.trace(err);
        });

}).listen(3000);

Configuration

The Manila module accepts a configuration object with the following optional properties:

root: the absolute path to the root of your app. Defaults to the directory which contains the application entry point.

views: the path to the directory in which to look for views, relative to the root. Defaults to 'views'.

partials: the directory in which to look for partial mnla files to use with <<include ... >> tags, realtive to the root. Defaults to the same directory as the views setting.

extension: the file extension of your views/partials. Defaults to '.mnla'.

// defaults:
const manila = require('manila')({
	root: path.dirname(require.main.filename),
	views: 'views',
	partials: 'views',
	extension: '.mnla'
});

Variables

<< expression >>: This tag will be replaced with the HTML-escaped result of evaluating the expression or variable with the current context.

<<< expression >>>: Use three carets instead of two to prevent HTML-escaping of the expression.

Includes

<< include path/to/file >>: Includes the content of the named file as part of the current template. path/to/file is relative to views/ unless overwritten during configuration.

Blocks

Manila tags are executed as plain 'ol JavaScript, so there's no template language to learn. While you can use any JavaScript you want, here are some examples:

Conditionals

<< if (expression) { >>
	<p>This markup renders if expression is truthy</p>
<< } else { >>
	<p>This markup renders if expression is falsy</p>
<< } >>

Array Loops

<< list.forEach(item => { >>
	<li><<item>></li>
<< }) >>

Object Loops

<< for (key in obj) { >>
	<li> <<key>> is <<obj[key]>> </li>
<< } >>

Syntax Highlighting

If your text editor thinks your mnla file is an html file, it might indicate that << manila >> tags are errors. To prevent this, change your syntax setting for the .mnla filetype to XML. In Sublime: View > Syntax > Open all with current extension as > XML.