Ft-next-handlebars NPM

next-handlebars

Enhanced handlebars for use in next applications

Express applications

require('ft-next-handlebars')(app, options)

Where options may have the following properties

directory: String - absolute path to the current application's working directory REQUIRED
partialsDir: Array of directories containing partials. This is concatenated to the default value of ./bower_components/
layoutsDir: String - the directory in which express-handlebars layouts are contained
defaultLayout: Name of the default layout to use. Defaults to false
helpers: Map of custom helpers to add to handlebars (see below for a list those included by default)
viewsDirectory: String - subdirectory where the application's views are stored (default /views)

Returns a promise which resolves when all partials in the supplied directories have been registered

To use the express-handlebars instance by itself (occassionally useful for consuming templates from bower_components outside of the context of an express app) use require('ft-next-handlebars').standalone(options)

A handlebars instance with all next helpers, but without partials, is also exposed at require('ft-next-handlebars').handlebars;

Client side javascript

require('next-handlebars')(options)

Where options may have the following properties

helpers: Map of custom helpers to add to handlebars (see below for a list those included by default)

Returns a handlebars instance

Other server side applications

Should you need to use handlebars with all the next helpers but without next-express use require('ft-next-handlebars').handlebars(options), which has the same API a the client side module

THE HELPERS

Inheritance helpers

Block inheritance

This is achieved by means of two helpers:

outputBlock used in the parent template to indicate where content should be output. Can also define default content
defineBlock used in the child template to define the desired output to insert into the block

// parent.html
<header>thing</header>
{{#outputBlock 'my-block'}}default content{{/outputBlock}}
<footer>thing</footer>

// child.html
{{#defineBlock 'my-block'}}
	Mustaches to process: {{someVar}}
{{/defineBlock}}
{{> parent}}

usePartial

Allows a partial to be selected based on the value of a variable

{{{usePartial 'path/to/partial'}}} Note a '>' is not required in the path and you will normally need triple mustaches

Content helpers

dateformat

Outputting date objects as strings

{{#dateformat}}{{ a date object }}{{/dateformat}} outputs an isoString
{{#dateformat "dddd, d mmmm, yyyy"}}{{ a date object }}{{/dateformat}} outputs the date formatted as 'Tuesday, 3 February, 2014'

encode

Encoding strings to be output safely in html

{{encode q mode='uriComponent'}} outputs the result of encodeURIComponent(q) ({{encode q }} will also do this)
{{encode q mode='uri'}} outputs the result of encodeURI(q)

topicUrl

Takes a topic identifier (currently something like topic:"European%20Cars") and converts to a next stream url /stream/topic/European%20Cars

{{topicUrl searchString}}

paragraphs

Outputting some paragraphs from a larger chunk of html, zero indexed

{{{paragraphs body start=0 end=1}}} will output the first paragraph of body. Note the triple mustaches

removeImageTags

Strips all image tags from a chunk of html

{{{removeImageTags body}}} Note the triple mustaches

resize

Replaces an image url with an image service url, serving an appropriately resized image

{{#resize 200}}http://images.com/pic.jpg{{/resize}}

json

Outputs an object as json.

{{json obj}} - for use within data attributes and elsewhere in html (will convert '"' to '"' etc..)
{{{json obj}}} - for outputting the json unencoded