Handlebars Extended (HBX)

A lightweight wrapper around the popular Handlebars library to add support for nested layouts.

Getting started

The package can be installed with the following command:

npm install handlebars-extended --save

Example

The example below shows how a Handlebars content page can be nested within a layout.

Layout file (root.hbs)

<html>
<head><title>{{title}}</title>
<body>
{{{content}}}
</body>
</html>

Content file (welcome.hbs)

{{! layout: root}}
<h1>Welcome page</h1>
{{question}}

Code

var hbx = require('handlebars-extended');

// register the global layout
hbx.registerLayout('root', '<FROM ROOT.HBS>');

// compile the content page template
var template = hbx.compile('<FROM WELCOME.HBS>');

// render the nested content page with data
var result = template({ title: 'Why hello there!', question: 'How is your day going?' });

Resulting HTML

<html>
<head><title>Why hello there!</title>
<body>
<h1>Welcome page</h1>
How is your day going?
</body>
</html>

Usage

Layout definition

The layout definition is a Handlebars comment that defines the name of the layout that should be used. By using comments, the definition will be ignored if by the standard Handlebars project.

{{! layout: NAME }}

Layouts can also define layout definitions meaning multiple layers of nest are possible.

Monkey Patching

In order to maintain existing handlebars functionality, HBX monkey patches the existing compile method. Currently the precompile method has been disabled.

API

hbx.registerLayout(name, layout)

Registers a global layout that can then be used by all future compile calls.

hbx.registerLayout('root', '<div>{{{content}}}</div>');

hbx.unregisterLayout(name)

Removes a registered global layout, this will result in the layout no longer being available to any past or future compile calls.

hbx.unregisterLayout('root');

template({ layouts: {} })

Local layouts can also be specified when rendering a template, just like partials and helpers in Handlebars.

var template = hbx.compile('{{! layout: root }}\nhello');
template({ layouts: { root: '<div>{{{content}}}</div>' } });

sandcastle / handlebars-extended