gulp-handlebars

Handlebars plugin for gulp 3

Usage

Install gulp-handlebars as a development dependency:

npm install --save-dev gulp-handlebars

Compiling templates for the browser

gulp-declare and gulp-wrap can be used to safely declare template namespaces and make templates available for use in the browser.

First, install development dependencies:

npm install --save-dev gulp-handlebars gulp-wrap gulp-declare gulp-concat

Given the following directory structure:

├── gulpfile.js              # Your gulpfile
└── source/                  # Your application's source files
    └── templates/           # A folder containing templates named with dot notation
        └── home.header.hbs  # A template that will be available as MyApp.templates.home.header

To compile all templates in source/templates/ to build/js/templates.js under the MyApp.templates namespace:

gulpfile.js

var handlebars = require('gulp-handlebars');
var wrap = require('gulp-wrap');
var declare = require('gulp-declare');
var concat = require('gulp-concat');

gulp.task('templates', function(){
  gulp.src('source/templates/*.hbs')
    .pipe(handlebars())
    .pipe(wrap('Handlebars.template(<%= contents %>)'))
    .pipe(declare({
      namespace: 'MyApp.templates',
      noRedeclare: true, // Avoid duplicate declarations
    }))
    .pipe(concat('templates.js'))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('build/js/'));
});

The template's filename is combined with the namespace, so the resulting build/js/templates.js would look like:

this["MyApp"] = this["MyApp"] || {};
this["MyApp"]["templates"] = this["MyApp"]["templates"] || {};
this["MyApp"]["templates"]["home"] = this["MyApp"]["templates"]["home"] || {};
this["MyApp"]["templates"]["home"]["header"] = Handlebars.template(function() { /* compiled template function */ });

Namespace templates according to nested directories

See the namespaceByDirectory example if you'd like to compile templates with a mapping that looks like this:

File path	Namespace path
source/templates/App.hbs	MyApp.templates.App
source/templates/App/header.hbs	MyApp.templates.App.header
source/templates/App/footer.hbs	MyApp.templates.App.footer
source/templates/Other.item.hbs	MyApp.templates.Other.item

Compiling to various module systems

See the gulp-define-module documentation for details on how to define templates as AMD, Node, CommonJS, and hybrid modules.

See the amd example for a full example of compiling templates to AMD modules.

gulp-handlebars makes the following available for use in gulp-define-module's wrapper template option:

• <%= handlebars %> - The Handlebars template, wrapped in a call to Handlebars.template()
• <%= contents %> - The bare Handlebars template (not wrapped).

gulp-handlebars also sets a default options.require of { Handlebars: 'handlebars' } for gulp-define-module so Handlebars will be present in when defining AMD, Node, CommonJS, or hybrid modules. You can change this by passing a different options.require when you invoke gulp-define-module.

Compiling templates for use in Ember applications

See the ember example for a full example of compiling templates for Ember.

You can use ember-handlebars to compile templates for use within Ember:

gulpfile.js

gulp.task('templates', function(){
  gulp.src('source/templates/*.hbs')
    .pipe(handlebars({
      handlebars: require('ember-handlebars')
    }))
    .pipe(wrap('Ember.Handlebars.template(<%= contents %>)'))
    .pipe(declare({
      namespace: 'Ember.TEMPLATES',
      noRedeclare: true, // Avoid duplicate declarations
    }))
    .pipe(concat('templates.js'))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('build/js/'));
});

Note: When compiling Ember templates to a module using gulp-define-module, be sure to set options.context.handlebars accordingly:

gulp.task('templates', function(){
  gulp.src('source/templates/*.hbs')
    .pipe(handlebars({
      handlebars: require('ember-handlebars')
    }))
    .pipe(defineModule('amd', {
      context: {
        handlebars: 'Ember.Handlebars.template(<%= contents %>)'
      }
    }))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('build/js/'));
});

Compiling partials

The following example will precompile and register partials for all .hbs files in source/templates/ that start with an underscore, then store the result as build/js/partials.js;

var path = require('path');
var gulp = require('gulp');
var wrap = require('gulp-wrap');
var concat = require('gulp-concat');
var handlebars = require('gulp-handlebars');

gulp.task('partials', function() {
  // Assume all partials start with an underscore
  // You could also put them in a folder such as source/templates/partials/*.hbs
  gulp.src(['source/templates/_*.hbs'])
    .pipe(handlebars())
    .pipe(wrap('Handlebars.registerPartial(<%= processPartialName(file.relative) %>, Handlebars.template(<%= contents %>));', {}, {
      imports: {
        processPartialName: function(fileName) {
          // Strip the extension and the underscore
          // Escape the output with JSON.stringify
          return JSON.stringify(path.basename(fileName, '.js').substr(1));
        }
      }
    }))
    .pipe(concat('partials.js'))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('build/js/'));
});

See the partials example for a full example that compiles partials and templates down to a single file.

Compiling using a specific Handlebars version

You can use different versions of Handlebars by specifying the version in your package.json and passing it as options.handlebars:

package.json

{
  "devDependencies": {
    "handlebars": "^1.3.0"
  }
}

gulpfile.js

gulp.task('templates', function(){
  gulp.src('source/templates/*.hbs')
    .pipe(handlebars({
      handlebars: require('handlebars')
    }))
    .pipe(wrap('Handlebars.template(<%= contents %>)'))
    .pipe(declare({
      namespace: 'MyApp.templates',
      noRedeclare: true, // Avoid duplicate declarations
    }))
    .pipe(concat('templates.js'))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('build/js/'));
});

The runtime you include on the client side MUST match the version you compile templates with. You cannot use the the 2.x runtime with 1.x templates. The handlebars1 example copies the runtime from node_modules/handlebars/dist/handlebars.runtime.js and uses that on the client side. Follow a similar pattern in your application to keep the runtime up to date with the compiler.

Compiling to separate modules for Node/Browserify

This example will make templates available for loading via Node's require:

gulpfile.js

var handlebars = require('gulp-handlebars');
var defineModule = require('gulp-define-module');

gulp.task('templates', function(){
  gulp.src(['templates/*.hbs'])
    .pipe(handlebars())
    .pipe(defineModule('node'))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('build/templates/'));
});

Templates can then be used within Node as such:

var appTemplate = require('./build/templates/App.Header.js');
var html = appTemplate(data);

Compiling to a single module for use in Node/Browserify

See the singleModule example if you'd like to have a single module that contains all of your templates that can be used like so:

yourApp.js

var templates = require('./templates');
var output = templates.App.header();

Processing the generated template AST

The example below removes any partial and replaces it with the text foo.

gulpfile.js

handlebars({
  processAST: function(ast) {
    ast.statements.forEach(function(statement, i) {
      if (statement.type === 'partial') {
        ast.statements[i] = { type: 'content', string: 'foo' };
      }
    });
  }
})

API

handlebars(options)

options.compilerOptions

Type: Object

Compiler options to pass to Handlebars.precompile().

options.processAST

Type: Function

A function which will be passed the parsed Handlebars Abstract Syntax Tree. You can modify the AST in place or return a new AST to change the source of the precompiled template.

options.handlebars

Type: Object

Handlebars library to use for precompilation. By default, the latest stable version of Handlebars is used.