thunder
A lightning fast JavaScript template engine.
Description
thunder is one of the fastest JavaScript template engine for Node.js and browsers. Checkout the benchmarks for its performance. The usage is quite simple, evaluation
, interpolation
, and interpolation with html escaping
. All variables and functions must start with it
for performance sake. thunder works well with Express
, check out the examples folder for the setup.
Syntax
Evaluation
Evaluate JavaScript expression
<? ?>
<? if( it.user ){ ?>
<p>User exist</p>
<? } ?>
Interpolation
Simple output ( no escape )
<?= ?>
// script = '<script>alert( 'this is harmful' );</script>';
<?= it.script ?>
// prints out <script>alert( 'this is harmful' );</script>
Interpolation with html escaping
Simple output ( escape ) | & < > "
--> & < > "
<?- ?>
// script = '<script>alert( 'this is gonna be fine' );</script>';
<?- it.script ?>
// prints out <script>alert( 'this is gonna be fine' );<script/>
Installation
With node.js
via npm:
// in the project root
$ npm install thunder
On browsers
Install thunder
in global to use the command line tools. You will need them to compile the HTML templates to JavaScript strings. By default thunder
looks for all the .html
files in the dir templates
in the same dir where the command is called, compile them to JavaScript strings and save them to views
dir. You can specify the input
and output
dir to wherever you want by passing the -i
and -o
arguments. Also the default compiled strings are requirejs
modules. By passing -r=false
it will use the file name as the template name and attach it to window
object.
// make sure you have `node.js` installed
$ npm intall thunder -g
$ thunder
Usage: thunder [command] [argument(s)]
Commands:
-v, --version Display thunder version
h, help Display usage information
b, build [args] Precompile templates
w, watch [args] Watch for changes
Arguments for `build` & `watch commands`
-i, --input=/new/input/dir Default: ./templates
-o, --output=/new/output/dir Default: ./views
-r, --requirejs=false Default: true
Copy thunder.min.js
to your public JavaScript dir.
Usage
For advance usages please checkout the API block.
With node.js
var thunder = require( 'thunder' );
var input = '<div>Hello, this is <?= it.name ?> :)</div>',
var locals = { name : 'Bibi' };
var options = {
cached : true,
compress : true
};
var output = thunder.render( input, locals, options );
console.log( output );
// <div>Hello, this is Bibi :)</div>
Express 2.x
app.configure( function(){
...
app.set( 'view engine', 'html' );
app.register( '.html', require( 'thunder' ));
// optional
app.set( 'view options', {
compress : true
});
...
});
To use express partial
, helper
and dynamic helper
just call the method but start with it
.
// partial
<?= it.partial( 'common/_nav' ) ?>
// helper
<a class="<?= it.selected( 'somewhere', it.nav_selected )?>" href="/somewhere">Somewhere</a>
On browsers
// Include necessary JS files
<script src="/js/lib/thunder.min.js"></script>
<script src="/js/views/index.js"></script>
<script>
var input = index,
var locals = { name : 'Bibi' };
var options = { cached : true };
var output = thunder.render( input, locals, options );
console.log( output );
// <div>Hello, this is Bibi :)</div>
</script>
<script src="/js/lib/require.js" data-main="/js/main.js"></script>
<script>
requirejs.config({
baseUrl : '/js/lib',
paths : { views : '../views' }
});
</script>
<script>
define( function ( require, exports, module ){
var thunder = require( 'thunder' );
var input = require( 'views/index' );
var locals = { name : 'Bibi' };
var options = { cached : true };
var output = thunder.render( input, locals, options );
console.log( output );
// <div>Hello, this is Bibi :)</div>
});
</script>
API
Arguments
input
type: String
desc: Input string to be compiled
thunder.compiled_text( input, options );
Returns the text ready to be compiled for the compile
function.
Arguments
input
type: String
desc: Input string to be compiled
options:
type: Object
props:
compress:
type: Boolean
default: false
desc: Whether to compress the output HTML
Example code
var input = '<div>Hello, this is <?= it.name ?> :)</div>';
var compiled_text = thunder.compiled_text( input );
console.log( compiled_text );
// var __t__='<div>Hello, this is ';__t__+= it.name ;__t__+=' :)</div>';return __t__;
thunder.compile( input, options );
Returns the compiled function.
Arguments
input
type: String
desc: Input string to be compiled
options
type: Object
props:
compress:
type: Boolean
default: false
desc: Whether to compress the output HTML
Example code
var input = '<div>Hello, this is <?= it.name ?> :)</div>';
var render = thunder.compile( input );
// it actually turns to the following function
// function ( locals ){
// var __t__='<div>Hello, this is ';__t__+= locals.name ;__t__+=' :)</div>';return __t__;
// };
thunder.cached( input, options );
Returns the cached compiled function.
Arguments
input
type: String
desc: Input string to be compiled
options
type: Object
props:
compress:
type: Boolean
default: false
desc: Whether to compress the output HTML
Example code
var input = '<div>Hello, this is <?= it.name ?> :)</div>';
var render = thunder.cached( input );
// it actually turns to the following function and will be cached
// so that next time the text does not need to be compiled again
// function ( locals ){
// var __t__='<div>Hello, this is ';__t__+= locals.name ;__t__+=' :)</div>';return __t__;
// };
thunder.render( input, locals, options );
Returns the output.
Arguments
input
type: String
desc: Input string to be compiled
locals
type: Object
desc: Variables to be passed to the compiled function
options
type: Object
props:
compress:
type: Boolean
default: false
desc: Whether to compress the output HTML
cached:
type: Boolean
default: false
desc: Whether to cache the compiled function
Example code
var input = '<div>Hello, this is <?= it.name ?> :)</div>',
var locals = { name : 'Bibi' };
var options = {
cached : true,
compress : true
};
var output = thunder.render( input, locals, options );
console.log( output );
// <div>Hello, this is Bibi :)</div>
Examples
Checkout the examples
folder for more details.
simple
$ cd /path/to/thunder/examples/simple
$ node run.js
complex
$ cd /path/to/thunder/examples/complex
$ node run.js
express
$ cd /path/to/thunder/examples/express
$ npm install -lf
$ node app.js
Benchmarks
The followings are some well-known template parsers that I took for Benchmarks. You are welcome to fork it and add more. There are 2 main parts, the compiling speed and the rendering speed. The compiled templates are cached in jqtpl
, Swig
and thunder. Therefore their benchmarks for compiling is much faster. You can change the compile method from cached
to compile
to see the none-cached speed for thunder.
To run the benchmarks just type the following commands in the terminal
$ git clone git://github.com/dreamerslab/thunder.git
$ cd thunder/benchmarks/
$ npm install -lf
$ node run.js
License
(The MIT License)
Copyright (c) 2011 dreamerslab <ben@dreamerslab.com>
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.