49 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
49 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
# mustache#
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An extension of the mustache text template engine for .NET.
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Download using NuGet: [mustache#](http://nuget.org/packages/mustache-sharp)
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## Overview
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Generating text has always been a chore. Either you're concatenating strings like a mad man or you're getting fancy with `StringBuilder`. Either way, the logic for conditionally including values or looping over a collection really obscures the intention of the code. A more declarative approach would improve your code big time. Hey, that's why server-side scripting got popular in the first place, right?
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[mustache](http://mustache.github.com/) is a really simple tool for generating text. .NET developers already had access to `String.Format` to accomplish pretty much the same thing. The only problem was that `String.Format` used indexes for placeholders: `Hello, {0}!!!`. **mustache** let you use meaningful names for placeholders: `Hello, {{name}}!!!`.
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**mustache** is a logic-less text generator. However, almost every time I've ever needed to generate text, I needed to turn some of it on or off, depending on a value. Not having the ability to turn things off usually meant going back to building my text in parts.
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Introducing [handlebars.js](http://handlebarsjs.com/). If you've needed to generate any HTML templates, **handlebars.js** is a really awesome tool. Not only does it support an `if` and `each` tag, it lets you define your own tags! It also makes it easy to reference nested values `{{Customer.Address.ZipCode}}`.
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**mustache#** brings the power of **handlebars.js** to .NET and then takes it a little bit further. Not only does it support the same tags, it also handles whitespace intelligently. **mustache#** will automatically remove lines that contain nothing but whitespace and tags. This allows you to make text templates that are easy to read.
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Hello, {{Customer.Name}}
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{{#with Order}}
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{{#if LineItems}}
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Here is a summary of your previous order:
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{{#each LineItems}}
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{{ProductName}}: {{UnitPrice:C}} x {{Quantity}}
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{{/each}}
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Your total was {{Total:C}}.
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{{#else}}
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You do not have any recent purchases.
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{{/if}}
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{{/with}}
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Most of the lines in the previous example will never appear in the final output. This allows you to use **mustache#** to write templates for normal text, not just HTML/XML.
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## Placeholders
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The placeholders can be any valid identifier. These map to the property names in your classes.
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### Formatting Placeholders
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Each format item takes the following form and consists of the following components:
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{{identifier[,alignment][:formatString]}}
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The matching braces are required. The alignment and the format strings are optional and match the syntax accepted by `String.Format`. Refer to [String.Format](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.string.format.aspx)'s documentation to learn more about the standard and custom format strings.
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## The 'if' tag
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## The 'each' tag
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## The 'with' tag
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