Cantinflas is a tiny, logic-less, template engine and subset of Mustache. Perfect for project scaffolding and other non-performance critical tasks.

$ npm install cantinflas

• lightweight: zero dependencies and only ~50 LOC
• powerful: support all the features you'd expect from a template-engine
• safe: No eval() or new Function()
• minimal API: one function call, that's all it take
• familiar: Cantinflas is almost a full mustache implementation
• formatting: respects the formatting of your source files

I needed a simple way to replace a few placeholders as a part of a scaffolding tool. There's no need for big high-performance template engines with tons of dependencies. I see a lot of CLI tools depend on projects like handlebars for stuff like this which in my opinion is overkill. KISS. XO.

import cantinflas from 'cantinflas';

const template = `Hello {{name}}!`
const data = { name: 'World' };

const output = cantinflas(template, data);
// => "Hello World"

Just as Mustache, tags are indicated by the double curly brackets. {{person}} is a tag, as is {{#person}}.

The most basic tag type is the variable. A {{name}} tag in a basic template will try to find the name key in the current context. If there is no name key found, nothing will be rendered. Keys that are not found in the data object are ignored.

* {{name}}
* {{age}}
* {{company}}

{
  "name": "Robin",
  "company": "Wayne Enterprises"
}

* Robin
*
* Wayne Enterprises

Sections render blocks of text one or more times, depending on the value of the key in the current context. A section begins with a pound and ends with a slash. That is, {{#person}} begins a "person" section while {{/person}} ends it. The behavior of the section is determined by the value of the key.

If the person key exists and has a value of false or an empty list, the content between the pound and slash will not be displayed.

Shown.
{{#person}}
  Never shown!
{{/person}}

{
  "person": false
}

Shown.

If the person key exists and has a non-false value, the content between the pound and slash will be rendered and displayed one or more times. When the value is a non-empty array or object, the text in the block will be displayed once for each item in the list. The context of the block will be set to the current item for each iteration. In this way we can loop over collections.

When interating lists, there's four special variables availble for you.

• .: This is the current item in the array.
• @index: This is the index of the current item.
• @first: True if the current iteration is the first.
• @last: True if the current iteration is the last.

{{#repo}}
 - {{@index}} {{name}}
{{/repo}}

{
  "repo": [
    { "name": "resque" },
    { "name": "hub" },
    { "name": "rip" }
  ]
}

- 0 resque
- 1 hub
- 2 rip

When the value is a function, it will be invoked and passed the block of text. The text passed is the literal block, unrendered. {{tags}} will not have been expanded.

{{#wrapped}}
  {{name}} is awesome.
{{/wrapped}}

{
  "name": "Willy",
  "wrapped": function(inner) {
    return `${inner}`
  }
}

Willy is awesome.

When the value is non-false but not a object, it will be used as the context for a single rendering of the block.

{{#person?}}
  Hi {{name}}!
{{/person?}}

{
  "person?": { "name": "Jon" }
}

Hi Jon!

An inverted section begins with a caret (hat) and ends with a slash. That is {{^person}} begins a "person" inverted section while {{/person}} ends it. Inverted sections render text once based on the inverse value of the key. That is, they will be rendered if the key doesn't exist, is false, or is an empty list.

{{#repo}}
  - {{name}}
{{/repo}}
{{^repo}}
  No repos :(
{{/repo}}

{
  "repo": []
}

No repos :(

Return: String

Compiled template.

Type: string

A string template. This the input you want to compile.

Type: Object

Data object to use for the compiling.

MIT © Terkel Gjervig