nephrite

Nephrite

Pre-compiles Jade to Coffee/Coco/LiveScript, allowing you to have the syntax of Jade with the best perfs (only interpolation is used). It also avoids you the pain of undefined and null by auto-soaking.

To make you understand this a bit better, let's say that your code :

ul#pages
  for page in @pages
    li: a(href="page/#{page}")= page

will get compiled to

'<ul id="pages">' + join((function () {
  var ref$, results$ = [];
  for (key in ref$ = locals.pages) {
    val = ref$[key];
    results$.push('<li><a href="page/' + page + '">' + page + '</a></li>');
  }
  return results$;
}()) || '') + '</ul>'

Jade itself can be slow due to several factors (with, attrs, escape) and this project allows you to avoid that!

(the code is highly unstable and total crap) Tho, it's used in html5chan and wowboardhelpers.

Extension

Files are valid jade files per se, minus the @ part. Nephrite's default extension is .ne - .jade being valid too.

Usage

Compile it and use it client-side (this acts like jade's client: true). Attributes are passed as locals, aliased to @. You can pass an extra attributes object as @@. The code returned is a module export (module.exports = -> ...).

# compile it
nephrite = require 'nephrite'

src = nephrite 'a(b="#{@c}")', 'index.jade', options
js = Coco.compile src, {bare: true, filename}

# use it client-side
fn obj, extra

The options object is passed to jade, without :

• the safe option, for @ and @@ replacement (see below).

Syntax

The syntax is the same as Jade, with a few gotchas :

• Don't prefix your tags with -, it's jade interpolation, to allow for even better perfs on static content :

ul#pages
 - for (var i = 0; i <= 10; ++i)
    li: a(data-page=i, href="/page/%{i}")== i

for tags, see just below.

• Jade output is == (as seen just before). This is executed compile-time (by jade).

• Jade interpolation is %{}

• Tags are automatically recognized. Currently supported tags are : if, unless, while, for, else. Loops are automatically joined.

• To avoid complexity in the converter, for attribute interpolation you have to explicitely interpolate them : a(href=foo) Foo! will use jade's foo local (compile time) whereas a(href="#{@foo}") Foo! will use your @foo (locals.foo, runtime).

• Filter content is not modified in any way.

• The "silent code interpolation" (and prelude) is ~. (take note that any code interpolation appearing BEFORE content will be moved in the prelude, out of the closure, for better perfs.) For example :

~ template = require 'user-template'
~ /*^ this will be moved out of the closure function*/
#users
  ~ /*this will not*/
  ~ "this won't be outputted anyway"

• For bigger blocks, use :prelude filter.

:prelude
  gen-classes = ->
    classes = "post "
    classes += "abc " if it.abc
    classes

blah= gen-classes {}

Remember, of course, that you should avoid having too much logic in your templates

• Do note one thing : replacement of @ is @@ is made globally, even in your text. For example, div @hey will give <div>locals.hey</div>.

  In order to avoid that, you can enable the "safe mode" through two ways :

  • Passing the option {+safe} to the compiling (3rd parameter).

  • Using the directive in prelude :

    ~ "use safe"
    div @hey
    div= @this-is-interpolated
  

  Be warned that this comes with a performance loss (the function is wrapped with an IIFE for the transpiler to recognize @ as this), which is why it's not active by default.