Nustache - Logic-less templates for .NET

• Nustache.Core:
• Nustache.Mvc3:
• Nustache.Compliation:

NEW NOTICE - 2015-03-29:

Hello, as you may have noticed this repository has been silent for awhile. I worked on it awhile ago when I had a problem but didn't contribute any more.

I'm planning to commit some time to looking at outstanding pull-requests and issues and try get the project moving again. With that in mind feel free to open issues and contribute pull requests.

• Romanx

NOTICE (JDiamond):

I haven't used Nustache in a while and don't have enough bandwidth to responsibly maintain it. If you depend on Nustache and want committ access, please contact me!

For a list of implementations (other than .NET) and editor plugins, see http://mustache.github.com/.

Installation:

• Pull from GitHub or download the repository and build it.
• Or, install via NuGet (search for Nustache).
• If you're using MVC, you'll want to build/install the Nustache.Mvc3 project, too.

Usage:

For non-MVC projects:

• Add a reference to Nustache.Core.dll (done for you if you used NuGet).
• Import the Nustache.Core namespace.
• Use one of the static, helper methods on the Render class.

var html = Render.FileToString("foo.template", myData);

• Data can be object, IDictionary, or DataTable.
• If you need more control, use Render.Template.
• See the source and tests for more information.
• For compiled templates:

var template = new Template();
template.Load(new StringReader(templateText));
var compiled = template.Compile<Foo>(null);

var html = compiled(fooInstance);

For MVC projects:

• Add a reference to Nustache.Mvc3.dll (done for you if you used NuGet).
• Add NustacheViewEngine to the global list of view engines.
• See Global.asax.cs in the Nustache.Mvc3.Example project for an example.

nustache.exe:

• Command-line wrapper around Render.FileToFile.

• Parameters are templatePath, dataPath, and outputPath.

• Reads JSON or XML from dataPath for data.

  • If extension is .js or .json, assumes JSON. Must wrap with { }.

  • If extension is .xml, assumes XML. Initial context is the document element.

    nustache.exe foo.template myData.json foo.html
    

• External templates are assumed to be in the same folder as the template mentioned in templatePath.

• Extension is also assumed to be the same as the template in templatePath.

Syntax:

• The same as Mustache with some extensions.
• Support for defining internal templates:

{{<foo}}This is the foo template.{{/foo}}
The above doesn't get rendered until it's included
like this:
{{>foo}}

You can define templates inside sections. They override templates defined in outer sections which override external templates.

Helpers usage:

Helpers may be useful to:

• Apply custom format on the values to be rendered
• To call extension methods
• ...

Example: Following line should print time like 13:21:10 instead of default format of DateTime.

{{FormatDateTime FooDateTime format="HH:mm:ss"}}

To get this working use following code before rendering.

Nustache.Core.Helpers.Register("FormatDateTime", FormatDateTime);

And implement the function FormatDateTime, which could look like this:

static void FormatDateTime(RenderContext context, IList<object> arguments, IDictionary<string, object> options, RenderBlock fn, RenderBlock inverse)
{
	if (arguments != null && arguments.Count > 0 && arguments[0] != null && arguments[0] is DateTime)
	{
		DateTime datetime = (DateTime)arguments[0];
		if (options != null && options.ContainsKey("format"))
			context.Write(datetime.ToString(options["format"] as string));
		else
			context.Write(datetime.ToString());
	}
}

Helpers syntax in nustache is HelperName [arguments] [options]. Difference between arguments and options is that the options specifie the tuples key=value while arguments are simple values. If value (from arguments or options) is not closed within double quotes it gets evaluated (e.g. FooDateTime is evaluated to value of the member called FooDateTime, and therefore the argument[0] is of DateTime type. On the other hand the string "HH:mm:ss" is not evaluated.

All arguments and options are separated by spaces and even closed in double-quotes they cannot contain spaces. arguments and options may be mixed (equation sign marks it is option instead of argument).

Development:

• Build with VS2012 or MSBuild.
• To run the tests that use Mustache specs, run this command from your Nustache clone:

git submodule update --init