Jerrymarker.js

Jerrymarker is an open-source template engine in javascript. Based on the parser generated by jison, it's easy to custome the lexical and grammer rules to build a powerful parser in javascript. Jerrymarker maintains a simple syntax tree for your template and render it by traversing the tree. It also provides the necessary to build your templates. As a light-weighted template engine, jerrymarker is easy to learn since the rules in jerrymarker template is just like what is in freemarker which is a template engine commonly used in Java.

Jerrymarker's target is "jerrymarker = javascript + freemarker-- ++".

Jerrymarker's preject site: http://www.jerrymarker.com.

Building & Installing

grunt build  //to generate the parser javascript from lex/yacc rule

grunt  //concat the parser and other util codes to generate the dist js files

Installing jerrymarker is easy now. Simple use the javascript from the dist folder. Or just download the javascript from [project site] (http://www.jerrymarker.com).

Getting Start

Jerrymarker templates look like HTML, with embeded interpolations and directives.

<div class="entry" >
    <#if job == "programmer" >
        Hello, ${name}
    </#if>
</div>

the <#if> is a directive while ${name} is an interpolation expression.

For web page, you can put the template in a script tag.

<script id="book" type="text/x-jerrymarker-template" >
    <h2>${title}</h2>
    <h4>by ${author.name}(${author.d1} ~ ${author.d2})</h4>
</script>

In the javascript part, you can use the template like this.

var nd = document.getElementById('book');
var source = nd.innerHTML;
var template = jerrymarker.compile(source);

All you need to do is to render the template with a context object.

var book = {
    title: "Pride and Prejudice",
    author: {
        name: "Jane Austen",
        d1: 1775,
        d2: 1817
    }
};

var html = template(book);

And result in

<h2> Pride and Prejudice </h2>
<h4> by Jane Austen(1775 ~ 1817) </h4>

Values & Types

Jerrymarker now only support 4 value types as Number, String, Boolean and Sequence.

<#assign a = 100 >
<#assign b = 0.01 >
<#assign c = 'string' >
<#assign d = "string" >
<#assign e = true >
<#assign f = [3,2,1, 'go'] >

You can declare a variable via assign directive, the lexical rule is just like javascript(letters or letters plus digits). So you can use v = xx, v1 = xx, but not 1v = xx. Array and Hash types are in schedule now.

Interpolations

The format of interpolations is

${expression}

where expression can be all kind of expression. e.g.

${(100 + x) * -y}

Expressions

When you supply value for interpolations: The usage of interpolations is ${expression} where expression gives the value you want to insert into the output as text.

${x*2+(3+4)*5}

When you supply a value for the directive parameter: You have already seen the if directive in the Getting Started section. The syntax of this directive is:

<#if expression>...</#if>

<#if ((x < 100) && !(x <= 50)) >
    x is greater than 50 and less than 100
</#if>

Jerrymarker now supports +. -. *, /, %, !, (), '>', '<', '!=', '>=', '=>', '&&', '||'.

There is another set of special operators including ?? !, and other operators starting with ?. For example, ?html will output the escaped value, jerrymarker hopes to implement some build-in functions which is often used in freemarker template.

Use the build-in ?html to encode the html special chars.

<#assign x = "<span>Hi</span>" >
${x}

<#assign y = "<span>Hi</span>"?html >
${y}

The result is

<span>Hi</span>

&lt;span&gt;Hi&lt;/span&gt;

Use the build-in ?? with if directive

<#if x?? && x < 100 >
    x exists and x < 100
</#if>

Use x!y in interploation

${x!100}  //if x exists output x or output 100

Warning! It may be wrong if you use '>' operator without '()' since '>' will be parsed as the close '>' for directives. If you have used freemarker, you will find the wrong case in freemarker too.

//wrong
<#if x > 100 >
    ${x}
</#if>

//corrected
<#if (x > 100) >
    ${x}
</#if>

Directive List

Example 1: You can use list to count between two numbers

<#assign x = 1 >
<#list x..10 as i>
    ${i}
</#list>

The output will be

1
2
3

Example 2: You can use the list directive to process a section of template for each variable contained within a Array.

<div>
    <ul>
        <#list animals as animal>
            <#if animal.cate == "insect" >
                <li>${animal.name}</li>
            </#if>
        </#list>
    </ul>
</div>

And the context

var context = {
    animals: [
        {
            cate: 'insect',
            name: 'fly'
        },
        {
            cate: 'insect',
            name: 'butterfly'
        },
        {
            cate: 'mammal',
            name: 'panda'
        }
    ]
}

The output will be

<ul>
<li>fly</li>
<li>butterfly</li>
</ul>

Directive Assign

Now only support <#assign name=value>, name: name of the variable. It is not expression, value: the value to store. Expression.

<#assign counter = 0>
<#list 1..10 as i>
    <#if i % 2 == 0 >
        <#assign counter = counter + 1 >
    </#if>
</#list>
the event number is ${counter}

And result in

the event number is 5