ErlyDTL compiles Django Template Language to Erlang bytecode.
Project homepage: https://github.com/erlydtl/erlydtl/wiki
ErlyDTL implements the Django Template Language as documented for version 1.6, here: https://django.readthedocs.org/en/1.6.x/ref/templates/builtins.html
Despite our best efforts to be completely compatible with the Django Template Languge, there are still a few differences.
We follow a
gitflow
inspired branching model, where master
is the latest released
version (a.k.a. stable), and use develop
for stuff that may break
from time to time.
Releases are made from the master branch, with dependency versions pinned down and a hard coded version number in the app file.
This is were all the action is, and at times may be slightly broken. Suitable for early adopters who aren't afraid of a little debugging and hopefully also reporting issues.
Whenever master is deemed stable with a nice set of additions/changes, it is tagged for a new release.
As we're still going for the big 1.0 release, breaking changes may be introduced also on minor release bumps; but after that, we'll stick with semver.
To compile ErlyDTL, run
make
in this directory.
The erl syntax tools is broken in Erlang R16B03, use R16B03-1 or any other supported version instead.
In case of compilation issues, make sure your version of rebar is up-to-date.
Older versions of rebar does not support the raw
option for dependencies, and may produce an error
message like this:
ERROR: Invalid dependency specification {merl,".*",
{git,
"git://github.com/erlydtl/merl.git",
"28e5b3829168199e8475fa91b997e0c03b90d280"},
[raw]}
Usage:
erlydtl:compile_file("/path/to/template.dtl", my_module_name)
erlydtl:compile_file("/path/to/template.dtl", my_module_name, Options)
erlydtl:compile_template("<html>{{ foo }}</html>", my_module_name)
erlydtl:compile_template("<html>{{ foo }}</html>", my_module_name, Options)
Result:
{ok, Module}
{ok, Module, Warnings}
{ok, Module, Binary}
{ok, Module, Binary, Warnings}
error
{error, Errors, Warnings}
Options is a proplist possibly containing:
auto_escape
- Control automatic HTML escaping of template
values. Enabled by default.
binary
- Include the compiled template binary code in the result
tuple (between the module name and any warning/error lists). Note,
this option is named the same as for the Erlang compiler, with
similar use, except that this option does NOT affect whether or not
a .beam file is saved.
binary_strings
- Whether to compile strings as binary terms
(rather than lists). Defaults to true
.
compiler_options
- Proplist with extra options passed directly to
compiler:forms/2
. This can prove useful when using extensions to
add extra defines etc when compiling the generated code.
constants
- Replace template variables with a constant value when
compiling the template. This can not be overridden when rendering
the template. See also default_vars
.
custom_filters_modules
deprecated - A list of modules to be
used for handling custom filters. The modules will be searched in
order and take precedence over the built-in filters. Each custom
filter should correspond to an exported filter, e.g.
some_filter(Value) -> iolist()
If the filter takes any arguments (e.g. "foo:2"), those will be added to the call:
some_filter(Value, Arg) -> iolist()
custom_tags_dir
- Directory of DTL files (no extension) includable
as tags. E.g. if $custom_tags_dir/foo
contains <b>{{ bar
}}</b>
, then {% foo bar=100 %}
will evaluate to <b>100</b>
.
custom_tags_modules
deprecated - A list of modules to be used
for handling custom tags. The modules will be searched in order and
take precedence over custom_tags_dir
. Each custom tag should
correspond to an exported function with one of the following
signatures:
some_tag(TagVars) -> iolist()
some_tag(TagVars, Options) -> iolist()
The TagVars
are variables provided to a custom tag in the
template's body (e.g. {% foo bar=100 %}
results in TagVars =
[{bar, 100}]
). The Options
are options passed as the second
argument to the render/2
call at render-time. (These may include
any options, not just locale
and translation_fun
.)
debug_compiler
- Enable compiler debug diagnostics. Currently it
debug prints the options passed to compile:forms
(i.e. if
verbosity is >= 2; that is, with two or more verbose
options) and
enables the saving of the compiled template in source form to a .erl
file.
debug_info
- This option is passed to compile:forms
to include
debug information in the compiled module.
debug_root
- Only applies when debug_compiler
is true
. The
root directory for debug source dumps. If set to false
, no source
dump will be saved. Defaults to undefined
, leaving the source dump
next to the source template file.
default_libraries
- A list of libraries that should be loaded by
default when compiling a template. Libraries can be specified either
by name (when there is a name to module mapping also provided in the
libraries
option) or by module.
default_vars
- Provide default values for variables. Any value
from the render variables takes precedence. Notice: in case the
value is a fun/0
, it will be called at compile time. See also
constants
.
doc_root
- Included template paths will be relative to this
directory; defaults to the compiled template's directory.
extension_module
experimental - This is work in progress to
make erlydtl extensible.
force_recompile
- Recompile the module even if the source's
checksum has not changed. Useful for debugging.
libraries
- A list of {Name, Module}
libraries implementing
custom tags and filters. Module
should implement the
erlydtl_library
behaviour (see [Custom tags and filters] below).
lists_0_based
- Compatibility warning Defaults to false
,
giving 1-based list access, as is common practice in Erlang. Set it
to true
to get 1-based access as in Django, or to defer
to not
decide until render time, using the render option
lists_0_based
. See also tuples_0_based
.
locale
- Locale to translate to during compile time. May be
specified multiple times as well as together with the locales
option.
locales
- A list of locales to be passed to translation_fun
.
Defaults to [].
no_env
- Do not read additional options from the OS environment
variable ERLYDTL_COMPILER_OPTIONS
.
no_load
- Do not load the compiled template.
out_dir
- Directory to store generated .beam files. If not
specified, no .beam files will be created and a warning is
emitted. To silence the warning, use {out_dir, false}
.
reader
- {module, function} tuple that takes a path to a template,
may be ReaderOptions and returns a binary with the file contents.
Defaults to {file, read_file}
. Useful for reading templates from
a network resource.
reader_options
- list of {option_name, Option} that passed as the
second parameter to reader
.
extra_reader(FileName, ReaderOptions) ->
UserID = proplists:get_value(user_id, ReaderOptions, <<"IDUnknown">>),
UserName = proplists:get_value(user_name, ReaderOptions, <<"NameUnknown">>),
case file:read_file(FileName) of
{ok, Data} when UserID == <<"007">>, UserName == <<"Agent">> ->
{ok, Data};
{ok, _Data} ->
{error, "Not Found"};
Err ->
Err
end.
CompileResult = erlydtl:compile(Body, ModName,
[return,
{reader, {?MODULE, extra_reader}},
{reader_options, [{user_id, <<"007">>},
{user_name, <<"Agent">>}]}
]),
record_info
- List of records to look for when rendering the
template. Each record info is a tuple with the fields of the record:
{my_record, record_info(fields, my_record)}
return
- Short form for both return_warnings
and return_errors
.
return_warnings
- If this flag is set, then an extra field
containing warnings is added to the tuple returned on success.
return_errors
- If this flag is set, then an error-tuple with two
extra fields containing errors and warnings is returned when there
are errors.
report
- Short form for both report_warnings
and report_errors
.
report_warnings
- Print warnings as they occur.
report_errors
- Print errors as they occur.
translation_fun
- A two-argument fun to use for translating
blocktrans
blocks, trans
tags and _(..)
expressions at compile
time. This will be called once for each pair of translated element
and locale specified with locales
and locale
options. The fun
should take the form:
fun (Block::string(), Locale|{Locale, Context}) ->
<<"ErlyDTL code">>::binary() | default
when Locale::string(), Context::string().
Please, keep in mind, that if your templates where not specially
designed, you probably still need render time translations.
See description of the translation_fun
render option for more
details on the translation context
.
Notice, you may instead pass a fun/0
, {Module, Function}
or
{Module, Function, Args}
which will be called recursively until it
yields a valid translation function, at which time any needed
translation setup actions can be carried out prior to returning the
next step (either another setup function/tuple, or the translation
function).
%% sample translation setup
fun () ->
translation_engine:init(),
fun translation_engine:translate/2
end
tuples_0_based
- Compatibility warning Defaults to false
,
giving 1-based tuple access, as is common practice in Erlang. Set it
to true
to get 1-based access as in Django, or to defer
to not
decide until render time, using the render option
tuples_0_based
. See also lists_0_based
.
vars
deprecated - Use default_vars
instead. Variables (and
their values) to evaluate at compile-time rather than
render-time.
verbose
- Enable verbose printing of compilation progress. Add
several for even more verbose (e.g. debug) output.
w
- Enable/Disable compile time checks.
Available checks:
non_block_tag
indicated that there is other data than block
tags in an extends-template
(e.g. a template that begins with the extends
tag).
warnings_as_errors
- Treat warnings as errors.
Helpers provide additional templating functionality and can be used in
conjunction with the custom_tags_module
option above. They can be
created from a directory of templates thusly:
erlydtl:compile_dir("/path/to/dir", my_helper_module_name)
erlydtl:compile_dir("/path/to/dir", my_helper_module_name, Options)
The resulting module will export a function for each template
appearing in the specified directory. Options is the same as for
compile/3
.
Compiling a helper module can be more efficient than using
custom_tags_dir
because the helper functions will be compiled only
once (rather than once per template).
Notice: The exported template functions return an iolist()
on
success only, failures are non-local (e.g. as a throw). To get the
result in wrapped tuple {ok, iolist()} | {error, Reason}
call one of
the render
functions: render(Tag) | render(Tag, Vars) | render(Tag,
Vars, Opts)
.
my_compiled_template:render(Variables) -> {ok, IOList} | {error, Err}
Variables is a proplist, dict, gb_tree, or a parameterized module (whose method names correspond to variable names). The variable values can be atoms, strings, binaries, or (nested) variables.
IOList is the rendered template.
my_compiled_template:render(Variables, Options) -> {ok, IOList} | {error, Err}
Same as render/1
, but with the following options:
translation_fun
- A fun/1
or fun/2
that will be used to
translate strings appearing inside {% trans %}
and {% blocktrans
%}
tags at render-time. The simplest TranslationFun would be
fun(Val) -> Val end
. Placeholders for blocktrans variable
interpolation should be wrapped in {{
and }}
. In case of
fun/2
, the extra argument is the current locale, possibly together
with a translation context in a tuple:
fun (Val|{Val, {Plural_Val, Count}}, Locale|{Locale, Context}) ->
Translated_Val
end
The context is present when specified in the translation tag. Example:
{% trans "Some text to translate" context "app-specific" %}
or
{% blocktrans context "another-context" %}
Translate this for {{ name }}.
{% endblocktrans %}
The plural form is present when using count
and plural
in a
blocktrans
block:
{% blocktrans count counter=var|length %}
There is {{ counter }} element in the list.
{% plural %}
There are {{ counter }} elements in the list.
{% endblocktrans %}
Render time translation function is also used to translate dates. Date tokens mimics those used in django, so you may reuse django translations. Tokens may appear in a date are:
While date token values may be passed as lists, consider using binaries as a default string format. Here is a simple but robust translation function stub:
translation_placeholder({Val,{Plural, Count}}, {L, C}) when is_list(Val) ->
translation_placeholder({list_to_binary(Val),{Plural, Count}}, LC);
translation_placeholder(Val, {L, C}) when is_list(Val) ->
translation_placeholder(list_to_binary(Val), LC);
translation_placeholder(Val, {L, C}) when is_list(C) ->
translation_placeholder(Val, list_to_binary(C));
translation_placeholder(Val, {L, C}) when is_list(C) ->
io:format("Translating ~p into ~p with context ~p~n", [Val, L, C]),
%% do nothing and return original value
Val.
The translation fun can also be a fun/0
, {Module, Function}
or
{Module, Function, Args}
which will be called recursively until it
yields a valid translation function, at which time any needed
translation setup actions can be carried out prior to returning the
next step (either another setup function/tuple, or the translation
function).
lists_0_based
- If the compile option lists_0_based
was set to
defer
, pass this option (or set it to true, {lists_0_based,
true}
) to get 0-based list indexing when rendering the
template. See also tuples_0_based
.
locale
- A string specifying the current locale, for use with the
translation_fun
compile-time option.
tuples_0_based
- If the compile option tuples_0_based
was set to
defer
, pass this option (or set it to true, {tuples_0_based,
true}
) to get 0-based tuple indexing when rendering the
template. See also lists_0_based
.
my_compiled_template:translatable_strings() -> [String]
List of strings appearing in {% trans %}
and _(..)
tags.
my_compiled_template:translated_blocks() -> [String]
List of strings appearing in {% blocktrans %}...{% endblocktrans %}
blocks; the translations (which can contain ErlyDTL code) are
hard-coded into the module and appear at render-time. To get a list of
translatable blocks before compile-time, use the provided
blocktrans_extractor
module.
my_compiled_template:source() -> {FileName, CheckSum}
Name and checksum of the original template file.
my_compiled_template:dependencies() -> [{FileName, CheckSum}]
List of names/checksums of templates included by the original template file. Useful for frameworks that recompile a template only when the template's dependencies change.
my_compiled_template:variables() -> [Variable::atom()]
Sorted list of unique variables used in the template's body. The list
can be used for determining which variable bindings need to be passed
to the render/3
function.
my_compiled_template:default_variables() -> [Variable::atom()]
Like variables/0
, but for any variable which have a default value
provided at compile time.
my_compiled_template:constants() -> [Variable::atom()]
Like default_variables/0
, but these template variables has been
replaced with a fixed value at compile time and can not be changed
when rendering the template.
Starting with release 0.9.1, the recommended way to add custom tags
and filters are to register a module implementing the
erlydtl_library
behaviour. There are two functions needed to
implement a custom library: version/0
and inventory/1
.
The version/0
function is to be able to keep backwards compatibility
in face of an evolving library behaviour, and should return the
version of the behaviour the library supports. The valid range of
versions is in the spec for the version/0
callback in
erlydtl_library.erl
.
The inventory/1
function is called with either filters
or tags
as argument, and should return a list of all filters or tags available
in that library, respectively (see spec in erlydtl_library.erl
for
details on syntax for this list).
Tag functions must take a list of arguments, and may take a list of
render options, and should return an iolist()
as result value (see
custom_tags_modules
compile option).
Filter functions must take an iolist()
value to filter, and may take
an argument, and should return an iolist()
as result value (see
custom_filters_modules
compile option).
csrf_token
The
Cross Site Request Forgery
tag is not implemented.url
The
url
tag is not implemented. This should be
addressed in a
future release.dtl_compat
._
) to avoid "unused variable" warnings (see
#164).cycle
tags do not support independently moving the cycle value
from the original loop.From a Unix shell, run:
make tests
Note that the tests will create some output in tests/output in case of regressions.
ErlyDTL is released under the MIT license.