Handlebars.Net

Blistering-fast Handlebars.js templates in your .NET application.

Handlebars.js is an extension to the Mustache templating language created by Chris Wanstrath. Handlebars.js and Mustache are both logicless templating languages that keep the view and the code separated like we all know they should be.

Check out the handlebars.js documentation for how to write Handlebars templates.

Handlebars.Net doesn't use a scripting engine to run a Javascript library - it compiles Handlebars templates directly to IL bytecode. It also mimics the JS library's API as closely as possible.

##Install

nuget install Handlebars.Net

##Usage

string source =
@"<div class=""entry"">
  <h1>{{title}}</h1>
  <div class=""body"">
    {{body}}
  </div>
</div>";

var template = Handlebars.Compile(source);

var data = new {
    title = "My new post",
    body = "This is my first post!"
};

var result = template(data);

/* Would render:
<div class="entry">
  <h1>My New Post</h1>
  <div class="body">
    This is my first post!
  </div>
</div>
*/

###Registering Partials

string source =
@"<h2>Names</h2>
{{#names}}
  {{> user}}
{{/names}}";

string partialSource =
@"<strong>{{name}}</strong>";

using (var reader = new StringReader(partialSource))
{
  var partialTemplate = Handlebars.Compile(reader);
  Handlebars.RegisterTemplate("user", partialTemplate);
}

var template = Handlebars.Compile(source);

var data = new {
  names = new [] {
    new {
        name = "Karen"
    },
    new {
        name = "Jon"
    }
  }
};

var result = template(data);

/* Would render:
<h2>Names</h2>
  <strong>Karen</strong>
  <strong>Jon</strong>
*/

###Registering Helpers

Handlebars.RegisterHelper("link_to", (writer, context, parameters) => {
  writer.WriteSafeString("<a href='" + context.url + "'>" + context.text + "</a>");
});

string source = @"Click here: {{link_to}}";

var template = Handlebars.Compile(source);

var data = new {
    url = "https://github.com/rexm/handlebars.net",
    text = "Handlebars.Net"
};

var result = template(data);

/* Would render:
Click here: <a href='https://github.com/rexm/handlebars.net'>Handlebars.Net</a>
*/

This will expect your views to be in the /Views folder like so:

Views\layout.hbs                |<--shared as in \Views            
Views\partials\somepartial.hbs   <--shared as in  \Views\partials
Views\{Controller}\{Action}.hbs 
Views\{Controller}\{Action}\partials\somepartial.hbs 

##Performance Compared to rendering, compiling is a fairly intensive process. While both are still measured in millseconds, compilation accounts for the most of that time by far. So, it is generally ideal to compile once and cache the resulting function to be re-used for the life of your process.

##Future roadmap

• Add unit tests!
• Support for sub-expressions
• lookup, log, and helperMissing helpers
• Support for whitespace control
• MVC view engine
• Nancy view engine

##Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! The guidelines are pretty straightforward:

• Only add capabilities that are already in the Mustache / Handlebars specs
• Avoid dependencies outside of the .NET BCL
• Maintain cross-platform compatibility (.NET/Mono; Windows/OSX/Linux/etc)
• Follow the established code format