Rails + Backbone + Underscore templates

sprockets.rb

# sprockets.rb
# monkey patch to sprockets for evaluate_template
module Blisten
  module Sprockets
    module Context

      # Evaluates a Backbone style HTML template.
      # This is basically Sprockets::Context#evaluate
      # with some special rules applied.
      def evaluate_template(path)
        evaluate(path).escape("'", '"').gsub(/\n|\t/, "")
      end

    end
  end
end

::Sprockets::Context.send(:include, Blisten::Sprockets::Context)

string.rb

module Blisten
  module String

    # Escapes a series of chars in the current string.
    # Note that a new string is returned.
    def escape(*chars)
      gsub(/(?<!\\)(#{chars.join("|")})/) do |char|
        "\\" + char
      end
    end

  end
end

::String.send(:include, Blisten::String)

view.js

// view.js.erb
// render method in the backbone view
render: function() {
  if (!this.template) {
    this.template = _.template("<%= evaluate_template("./discover.html") %>");
  }

  this.$el.html(this.template(this.model.attributes));
  return this;
}