Grunt Handlebars Layouts

Handlebars helpers which implement Jade-like layout blocks.

Extend: extend layout (partial)
Append
Replace
Prepend

A grunt.js task to render Handlebars templates against a context & produce HTML.

If you want to pre-compilation your Handlebars use the grunt-contrib-handlebars Grunt task. This task will pre-compile multiple templates into a single file.

Resources

About

This task renders Handlebars templates against a context to produce HTML.

Inspired by grunt-dust-html and handlebars-layouts

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.0

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-handlebars-layouts --save-dev

Next, add this line to your project's grunt file:

grunt.loadNpmTasks("grunt-handlebars-layouts");

This plugin was designed to work with Grunt 0.4.x. If you're still using grunt v0.3.x it's strongly recommended that you upgrade, but in case you can't please use v0.3.3.

Lastly, add the configuration settings (see below) to your grunt file.

Documentation

This task has two required properties, src and dest. src is the path to your source file and dest is the file this task will write to (relative to the grunt.js file). If this file already exists it will be overwritten.

  files: {
    'dest.html': 'src.html'
  },

An example configuration looks like this:

  grunt.initConfig({
    handlebarslayouts: {
      home: {
        files: {
          'dist/home.html': 'src/home.html'
        },
        options: {
          partials: [
            'src/partials/*.hbs',
            'src/layout.html'
          ],
          modules: [
            'src/helpers/helpers-*.js'
          ],
          basePath: 'src/',
          context: {
            title: 'Layout Test',
            items: [
              'apple',
              'orange',
              'banana'
            ]
          }
        }
      }
    }
  });
  grunt.registerTask('default', ['handlebarslayouts']);

Optional Configuration Properties

This plugin can be customized by specifying the following options:

partials: partials files.
basePath: The base location to all your templates so that includes/partials can be resolved correctly.
context: A JavaScript object to render the template against. This option supports a few different types:
modules: add your customs helpers
strict: when is true the process fails if one file is missing (when is false juste a warning is trigger)

Useful Handlebars Helpers : handlebars-helpers

String: the location to a file containing valid JSON:

context: '/path/to/file.json'

Object: a regular ol' JavaScript object:

context: {
  pageTitle: 'My Awesome Website'
}

Array: an array of contexts, either string (files to parse) or JavaScript objects (>= 0.2.5), or both. Each item in the array will be merged into a single context and rendered against the template:

context: [
  'path/to/context.json',
  'path/to/another/context.json',
  { more: 'data' }
]

Special Var In Context

__filename (add in 0.2.7)

This is the resolved local path of this src file.

use it like {{ __filename }}

or in combination with a helper

Take a look to the example/example_4/.

Template example

{{#extend "layout"}}
    {{#append "head"}}
      <link rel="stylesheet" href="assets/css/home.css" />
    {{/append}}

    {{#replace "body"}}
      <h2>Welcome Home</h2>

      <ul>
        {{#items}}
          <li>{{.}}</li>
        {{/items}}
      </ul>
    {{/replace}}

    {{#prepend "footer"}}
      <script src="assets/js/analytics.js"></script>
    {{/prepend}}
{{/extend}}

Layout example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
    {{#block "head"}}
          <title>{{title}}</title>
          <meta name="description" content="">
    {{/block}}
  </head>

  <body>
    <div class="site">
      <div class="site-hd" role="banner">
        {{#block "header"}}
            <h1>{{title}}</h1>
        {{/block}}
      </div>

      <div class="site-bd" role="main">
        {{#block "body"}}
            <h2>Hello World</h2>
        {{/block}}
      </div>

      <div class="site-ft" role="contentinfo">
        {{#block "footer"}}
            <small>&copy; 2014</small>
        {{/block}}
      </div>
    </div>

    {{#block "footer"}}
      <p>footer</p>
    {{/block}}
  
    {{> footer}}
  </body>
</html>

Partial example

<footer>footer</footer>

Custom Helper example

Helpers can either be an object or a single register function. If register is on the object, then it calls the register function, passing in the engine.

module.exports.register = function (Handlebars, options)  { 
  Handlebars.registerHelper('foo', function ()  { 
    return 'foo';
  });
};

MD5 Helper (inspired by handlebars-md5)

'use strict';

var crypto = require('crypto'),
    fs = require('fs');

// The module to be exported
var helpers = {
  md5: function (path) {
    var content = fs.readFileSync(path);
    return crypto.createHash('md5').update(content).digest('hex');
  }
};

// Export helpers
module.exports.register = function (Handlebars, options) {
  options = options || {};

  for (var helper in helpers) {
    if (helpers.hasOwnProperty(helper)) {
      Handlebars.registerHelper(helper, helpers[helper]);
    }
  }
};

Foo and bar Helpers

'use strict';

// The module to be exported
var helpers = {
  foo: function () {
    return 'foo';
  },
  bar: function () {
    return 'bar';
  }
};

// Export helpers
module.exports.register = function (Handlebars, options) {
  options = options || {};

  for (var helper in helpers) {
    if (helpers.hasOwnProperty(helper)) {
      Handlebars.registerHelper(helper, helpers[helper]);
    }
  }
};

Handlebars Markdown Helper

Very simple Markdown for partial. do not forget to add your .md files to the partial list.

options: {
  partials: 'src/partials/*.md',
  ...
}

/**
 * Handlebars Markdown Helpers
 * Copyright (c) 2014 Thierry Charbonnel
 * Licensed under the MIT License (MIT).
 */
'use strict';

var marked = require('marked');

// Export helpers
module.exports.register = function (Handlebars, options) {
  options = options || {};
  options.marked = options.marked || {
    renderer: new marked.Renderer(),
    gfm: true,
    tables: true,
    breaks: false,
    pedantic: false,
    sanitize: true,
    smartLists: true,
    smartypants: false
  };
  
  Handlebars.registerHelper('md', function(name, context){
    var result;
    marked.setOptions(options.marked);
    // Convert inline markdown by prepending the name string with `:`
    if(name.match(/^:/)) {
      result = marked(name.replace(/^:/, ''));
    } else {
      try {
        result = marked(Handlebars.partials[name]);
      } catch(err) {
        result = '<!-- error -->'; 
      }
    }
    return new Handlebars.SafeString(result); 
  });  
};

npm Helpers

Add it in devDependencies and in gruntfiles.js

"devDependencies": {
  "handlebars-helper-moment": "*"
},

Add it in gruntfiles.js

handlebarslayouts: {
  home: {
    files: {
      'dist/home.html': 'src/home.html',
      'dist/index.html': 'src/index.html'
    },
    options: {
      ...
      modules: ['src/helpers/helpers-*.js', 'handlebars-helper-moment'],
      ...
    }
  }
}

or ( v0.1.4 > )

handlebarslayouts: {
  home: {
    files: {
      'dist/*.html': 'src/*.hsb'
    },
    options: {
      ...
      modules: ['src/helpers/helpers-*.js', 'handlebars-helper-moment'],
      ...
    }
  }
}

npm install

Tested Helpers

handlebars-helper-moment

suggested structure

A basic Handlebars-layouts site usually looks something like this:

.
├── partials
|   ├── footer.(html|hsb|md)
|   └── header.(html|hsb|md)
├── pages
|   ├── 2014-08-14-Handlebars-layouts-foo.(html|hsb)
|   └── 2014-08-14-Handlebars-layouts-bar.(html|hsb)
├── data
|   └── members.json
├── helpers
|   └── helpers-*.js
└── index.html

grunt file example

/*global module:false*/
module.exports = function(grunt) {
  'use strict';
  grunt.initConfig({
  
    handlebarslayouts: {
      dev: {
        files: {
          //'dist/home.html': 'src/home.html'
          'dist/*.html': 'src/*.hsb'
        },
        options: {
          partials: ['src/partials/*.hbs', 'src/partials/*.md', 'src/layout.html'],
          basePath: 'src/',
          modules: ['src/helpers/helpers-*.js', 'handlebars-helper-moment'],
          context: {
            title: 'Layout Test',
            projectName: 'Grunt handlebars layout',
            items: [
              'apple',
              'orange',
              'banana'
            ]
          }
        }
      }
    },
    
    connect: {
      server: {
        options: {
          livereload: true,
          port: 8000,
          base:'dist/',
          open: true
        }
      }
    },
    
    watch: {
      layout: {
        files: 'src/layout.html',
        tasks: 'handlebarslayouts:dev'
      },
      hsb: {
        files: 'src/**/*.hsb',
        tasks: 'handlebarslayouts:dev'
      },
      options: {
        livereload: true
      }
    },
    
  });
  
  grunt.loadTasks('../tasks');
  
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-connect');
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');

  grunt.registerTask('default', ['handlebarslayouts']);
  
  grunt.registerTask('serve', ['handlebarslayouts', 'connect:server', 'watch']);
  
};

=======

Other interesting projects

To precompile Handlebars templates to JST file use grunt-contrib-handlebars
Static site generators for Grunt.js, Yeoman and Node.js. Assemble
This task renders Dust templates against a context to produce HTML. grunt-dust-html
Handlebars helpers which implement Jade-like layout blocks for Node project handlebars-layouts
Library of 100+ handlebars helpers. handlebars-helpers
Gulp-Dust Precompiles Dust templates Gulp-Dust

Release History and Roadmap

2017-01-11 v0.3.0 Ready for Handlebars 4.0.5
2016-06-19 v0.2.7 Add New Varibale __filename (the src file name)
2016-01-05 v0.2.5 Parse object in context. bug fix (thanks neagle)
2016-01-05 v0.2.4 bug fix (thanks giuseppepaul)
2015-01-21 v0.2.1 context can be loaded as files (exemple_2)
2015-01-21 v0.2.0 update code
2015-01-21 v0.2.0b ready to work with grunt-contrib-connect and grunt-contrib-watch.
2014-10-08 v0.1.6 windows fix.
2014-10-08 v0.1.4 Add * for file list and unique name for Partials.
2014-09-05 v0.1.3 Better log error + strict mode.
2014-09-05 v0.1.1 Async optimization.
2014-09-03 v0.1.0 First Release.
2014-08-14 v0.0.* Alpha ans Beta Releases

License

Gulp version.

Soon. Help is welcome. (contact me)

thierryc/grunt-handlebars-layouts