plywood

A python-inspired templating language.

DEMO

import app.url
import request
from plywood.plugin import compress

doctype(5)  # or doctype('strict') doctype('xhtml'), etc.
html:  # this'll start looking a lot like jade, but with quotes and colons
  # even though 'html' is a function call, the parentheses are optional.
  head:
    meta(charset="utf-8")
    title:
      if self.title:  # context variables are available on 'self'
        # docstrings are stripped of preceding whitespace and the first and
        # last newline is removed.
        """
        {{self.title}} |
        """  # string interpolation uses plywood in 'inline' mode.  Each line
             # will be joined with a space.
      'Welcome'  # string literals require quotes
    compress('css'):
      # passing values to tag attributes are escaped (html-entitized) automatically
      # if you want to escape using xml, pass {'format': 'xml'} in your options.
      link(rel='stylesheet', type='text/css', href=url.static('css/reset.css'))
      link(rel='stylesheet', type='text/css', href=url.static('css/welcome.css'))
    script(src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js", type="text/javascript")
    compress('js'):
      script(src=url.static("js/underscore.js"), type="text/javascript")
      script(src=url.static("js/backbone.js"), type="text/javascript")
    ieif 'lt IE 9':
      script(src="//html5shiv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js", type="text/javascript")
      link(rel='stylesheet', type='text/css', href=url.static('css/ie.css'))
    # blocks? block inheritance?  of course!
    block('extra_head')
  body:
    div(class="wrapper", id="main-header"):
      # for xml usage, the token parsing will accept some gnarly-looking elements in
      # argument lists, and this uses the html-plugin constructor, so that
      # you don't have to create a bunch of plugins for your XML documents.
      # (you still need commas between arguments)
      <book xmlns='urn:loc.gov:books',
           xmlns:isbn='urn:ISBN:0-395-36341-6'>:
          <isbn:number>: 1568491379
      header:
        block('header'):
          # inlining is easy
          p(class="logo"): 'logo'
          # more complicated inlining
          p: a(href=url.reverse("login")): 'Login'
          block('header_title'):
            if self.user:
              'Welcome, '{self.user.name}'
            else:
              'Welcome'
        if not self.user:
          p(class="login"):
            a(href=url.reverse("login")): 'Log In'
            a(href=url.reverse("logout")): 'Log Out'
      nav:
        ul:
          block('nav'):

      section(class="breadcrumb"):
        block('breadcrumb')

      section(class="main"):
        block('messages'):
          if messages:
            ul(class="messages"):
              for message in self.messages:
                li(class=message.tags):  message
        script:
          # code literals, so that savvy editors can color the source code
          '''javascript
          $(document).ready(function(){
            $("ul.messages").addClass("animate");

            var fade_out = _(function() {
              this.addClass("fade-out")
            }).bind($("ul.messages"))

            setTimeout(fade_out, 5000);
            $("ul.messages").bind("click", fade_out);
          });
          '''
        block('content')

      footer:
        p:
          '&copy;{now(%Y)} colinta'

INSTALLATION

$ pip install plywood
$ ply < in.ply > out.html
# local development
$ pip install -e .

RUNTIME

When you run a plywood template, a lot of the work is done using plugins, which are loaded into the global context - the PlywoodEnv object. This only needs to happen once per application - the PlywoodEnv can be reused by any number of templates (though it is not thread safe - that will be remedied soon).

When you actually run a compiled Plywood object, you can pass in a dict of values that you want

WHY!?!?

The main reason: I envisioned an HTML templating language that had python-like syntax, and the options that are out there now (Haml, Coffekup, Jade) don't hit the mark.

Plain-Jane HTML? Sure, if you want. That is, I think, the best alternative to plywood! For that, use Jinja2.

The template languages that take an HTML-agnostic view (jinja2, django) is HTML made nastier by inserting additional markup. I looked at Jade and Haml as "yeah, you're getting there", but they didn't nail it. Plus, have you tried writing extensions for those systems? Ooof. Nasty stuff. Writing a plugin for plywood is much easier, and since you can take some part in the parsing and runtime process, you can write some pretty hefty plugins!

I'm unapologettically a DIY-er. I think that sometimes wheels just need re-inventing!

LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2012, Colin T.A. Gray All rights reserved.

See LICENSE for more details (it's a simplified BSD license).

RELEASE

python setup.py sdist
twine upload dist/*