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https://github.com/orasund/elm-handlebars

Handlebars templating language for Elm
https://github.com/orasund/elm-handlebars

elm

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Handlebars templating language for Elm

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README 

        
# elm-handlebars

Elm-Handlebars is a dialect of the Handlebars templating language for Elm



It uses a template and a json input to generate a String.



    
{{firstname}} {{lastname}}



A handlebars expression is a `{{`, some contents followed by a `}}`.

These expression will be then replaces with values from the json.



## Installation & First Steps



To install, type in `elm install Orasund/elm-handlebars`.

If you will need to work with json: `elm install elm/json`.



You can now start using the language by providing a json file and a template.alias



    case 

        "{"firstname":"Yehuda","lastname":"Katz"}"

        |> Json.Decode.decodeString Json.Decode.value

    of

        Ok value ->

            case

                value

                |> Handlebars.compile Handlebars.defaultConfig

                    "
{{firstname}} {{lastname}}
"

            of

            Just string ->

                string

            Err err ->

                err

                    |> Handlebars.errorToString

                

        Err err ->

            Json.Decode.errorToString err



## Elm-Handlebars vs. Handlebars.js



Elm-Handlebars is a subset of the original handlebars language.



Missing features are:



* **0-argument helpers**

  This way the name conflicts between helpers and fields are avoided

* **`each` block helper**

  It is functionally the same as a normal block but adding the feature would have broken the consistancy of helpers in general.

* **`with` block helper**

  There are a lot of oddities with this feature.

  

  1. It has its own syntax (introducing the `as` keyword) that does not really seam that useful.

  2. It can be abused to essentially a let expression (binding any constant value to a variable)

  3. The indended use, namely simplifing nested expressions, can be implemented with a simple helper without needing any special behaviour.

  

  Instead Elm-Handlebars ships with a different helper called the `inside` helper that can be used the change the context of a block.

* **`logs` expression helper**

  This helper would have been hard to implement. Though, it can be added quite easily as a custom helper. Therefore, its not included as a default helper.

* **Html escaping**

  Again, this can be done easily as a custom helper. Having it as a core feature assumes that the output target is Html.

* **Inline blocks**

  The original syntax is odd, to say the least. So instead Elm-Handlebars comes with an `inline` block helper.

* **Comments**

  No real reason. Please open an issue or create a PR if you need this feature.

* **Partical**

  Not included for time sake. Please open an issue or create a PR if you need this feature. 

* **The `else` expression**

  This expression is used very inconsistanly. The original intent surely was to make the syntax a bit nicer. But there are so many special cases, that adding this feature felt not really helpful.



  Instead Elm-Handlebars comes with a `not` expression helper that can produces the same results (maybe syntactically not as nice, but semantically very clear).

* **`@this` keyword**

  Can practically be replaced with `@index`

* **`raw` block**

  Can be replaced by a pre-processing language (like plain old Elm).

* **Literal segments**

  Please use pre-processing to rename any fields that use special characters. You can how ever use nummers to reference a specific element in a List.

* **Literal expressions**

  Again this should be done by pre-processing. Plans are to maybe have a way to provide template with a companion pre-processor. Open an issue or create a PR if you are interested in this feature.



## Contribute & Fund



If you need a new feature or found a bug, please open a new issue.

I will look at it whenever i've got time.



If the issue is really important to you, then you have two options.



* You can either create a PR yourself.

* Or donate some money via [issueHunt](https://issuehunt.io/r/Orasund/elm-handlebars) to increase the insentive for myself or someone else to tackle the problem for you.