John Resig's Simple Javascript Templating Function

README.md

Template

<script type="text/html" id="item_tmpl">
  <div id="<%=id%>" class="<%=(i % 2 == 1 ? " even" : "")%>">
    <div class="grid_1 alpha right">
      <img class="righted" src="<%=profile_image_url%>"/>
    </div>
    <div class="grid_6 omega contents">
      <p><b><a href="/<%=from_user%>"><%=from_user%></a>:</b> <%=text%></p>
    </div>
  </div>
</script>

You can also inline script:

<script type="text/html" id="user_tmpl">
  <% for ( var i = 0; i < users.length; i++ ) { %>
    <li><a href="<%=users[i].url%>"><%=users[i].name%></a></li>
  <% } %>
</script>

Quick tip: Embedding scripts in your page that have a unknown content-type (such is the case here – the browser doesn’t know how to execute a text/html script) are simply ignored by the browser – and by search engines and screenreaders. It’s a perfect cloaking device for sneaking templates into your page. I like to use this technique for quick-and-dirty cases where I just need a little template or two on the page and want something light and fast.

Usage

var results = document.getElementById("results");
results.innerHTML = tmpl("item_tmpl", dataObject);

simple-template.js

// Simple JavaScript Templating
// John Resig - http://ejohn.org/ - MIT Licensed
(function(){
  var cache = {};
 
  this.tmpl = function tmpl(str, data){
    var fn = !/\W/.test(str) ?
      cache[str] = cache[str] ||
        tmpl(document.getElementById(str).innerHTML) :
     
      new Function("obj",
        "var p=[],print=function(){p.push.apply(p,arguments);};" +
        "with(obj){p.push('" +
       
        // Convert the template into pure JavaScript
        str
          .replace(/[\r\t\n]/g, " ")
          .split("<%").join("\t")
          .replace(/((^|%>)[^\t]*)'/g, "$1\r")
          .replace(/\t=(.*?)%>/g, "',$1,'")
          .split("\t").join("');")
          .split("%>").join("p.push('")
          .split("\r").join("\\'")
      + "');}return p.join('');");
   
    return data ? fn( data ) : fn;
  };
})();