This gist was updated based on the discussion here : https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/yui-contrib/cUpVvtoUBa8
With the ability to precompile templates into javascript and the abtraction layer provided by Y.Template to normalize the api to render those templates, we got one step closer to create applications that can be template language agnostic.
The premise here is to create a YUI Application that references templates by name and call for render when needed without having to know what engine to use, or what file generated the compiled template, or what api should be used for a particular template.
In order to facilitate this, we should have a centralized registration mechanism used by the application to register any template that is provisioned, in which case we can decouple the provisioning process from the actual rendering process.
The initial proposal is to utilize Y.Template
as the central hub for all those templates, and doing so by introducing three new static methods, register
, unregister
and render
.
To register
a compiled template:
var revivedTemplate = Y.Template.register('templateName', template);
note: the revivedTemplate
is probably the same as argument template
, but just a guarantee that the function complies with the revive
API in Y.Template
.
note: the register method override any existing template with the same name. this will help with live updates in development mode.
To unregister
a template by name:
var wasRegisteredBool = Y.Template.unregister('templateName');
which returns a boolean in case you want to know if the template was previously registered.
To render
a registered template:
var html = Y.Template.render('templateName', data);
var revivedTemplate = Y.Template.register('name', function (data) {
return 'some string';
});
var someString = revivedTemplate({foo: 'foo'});
The means the function passed to register()
should be a function which conforms to the above contract. It is up to the thing which precompiles it to encapsulate or close-over any underly template engine specifics.
var someString = Y.Template.render('name', {foo: 'foo'});
var wasRegisteredBool = Y.Template.unregister('name');
A good example of this will be a nodejs application that uses YUI on the server side to precompile templates generating YUI Modules that can be use
on-demand or required
by our business logic, where those modules can do the provision of templates into the internal register, which guarantees that our business logic can render them. Some code:
Pre-compiled template into a module:
YUI.add('foo', function (Y, NAME) {
var compiled = function (data) {
/* compiled template */
return '<html fragment>';
};
Y.Template.register('foo', compiled);
}, '', {requires: ['template-base']});
Where the business logic can require foo
to guarantee the provision:
YUI.add('bar', function (Y, NAME) {
var html = Y.Template.render('foo', {
tagline: 'bar is now template language agnostic'
});
}, '', {requires: ['foo']});
- The internal cache mechanism should not be expensive
Y.Template._cache = {};
as the cache mechanism should be just fine.- Throwing when unregistered template is invoked
Y.Template.render
vsY.Template.prototype.render
might be confused, we need to clearly state this in the docs.- The nature of the
render
method is syncrounous, hence any register template should be syncronous.
few notes:
template-base
, and this has to be paramount.unregister
: it is a nice sugar, I will update the gist.new Y.Template()
: I'm reluctant to create one object per view (unless we figure out how to make that object very lean), too much complexity, when at the end, a compiled template is just a function.Y.Template.Micro
as the default fallback engine means that, to use this thing, you will have to loadtemplate
, instead oftemplate-base
even when I will not need it (yes, it is small, but I don't want it there if I don't need it).Y.Template.render('foo', data, options, whatever)
will just propagated that to the actual function.Y
at the server side that provisions templates in the same way we do in the client side, so performance is paramount.Bottomline, I'm leaning toward @tivac comments on this one, they resonate well with the
modown
experiment where extensions ofY.Template
are really only needed during the build process to compile things into a YUI Module that registers template(s), which btw, it is something we want to support out of the box for anyone using express.update 1: I will remove the Micro from the example.