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Preface

Goal: An overview about HTML Preprocessor.

Last month, I wrote a few articles about HTML, from basic stuff until bundler such as webpack, roller, and parcel. The big gap is the template engine aka HTML preprocessor. So I decide to make an article series dedicated to HTML preprocessor.

Template Engine in MVC context is the view parts. This means, frontend can alter views without messing with backend. However templating engine is also a fundamental part of learning backend.

The Process of Learning Plain HTML Step by Step

I choose the term HTML preprocessor, because the word template might refer to somethine else, such as themes, or boilerplate, or example code.

Which Template ?

My aim is to give ready to use examples.

We have to pick what example to provide. There are so many template, There is no use to cover them all.

I start with easy to use JS based template engine. They are Pug, Nunjucks, EJS, Handlebars. And test each with Grunt, Express, and Oak.

Templating Engine

Then I might continue with other stuff as well, such as Jinja2, Twig, Blade, and else. I learn those things a decade ago, and I need to refresh my youth memories, for use with the nowadays era of modern web development. In short, update my personal knowledge.

Comparison

For you who haven’t got any idea what template is, you can have a look at these express examples below:

  • Pug

Express: Loop in Pug

  • Nunjucks

Express: Loop in Nunjucks

  • EJS

Express: Loop in EJS

  • Handlebars

Express: Loop in Handlebars

Step By Step.

I arrange this article series as below:

  1. Fundamental Stuff: Issue with HTML.

  2. Render Static HTML Using Grunt: Pug, Nunjucks, EJS, Handlebars

  3. Server Side Express and Koa (NodeJS): Pug, Nunjucks, EJS, Handlebars

  4. Static Site Generator: Eleventy+Nunjucks, Pelican+Jinja, Jekyll+Liquid

Templating Engine in ExpressJS

On Consideration

I’m not sure

I consider to continue, if I could have time.

  1. Server Side Oak (DenoTS): : (maybe) Pug, Nunjucks, EJS, Handlebars

After above stuff, I will consider continue to Non JS Web Framework:

a. PHP Symfony: Twig

b. PHP Laravel: Blade

c. Flask: Jinja2

d. Ruby on Rails: Not known yet

e. Java Spring: Not known yet

Source Examples

You can obtain source examples here:


What’s Next?

Before we begin, we need a HTML case. A basic example, that will be used, as a based of all template engine, throughout this article series

Consider continue reading [ Template - HTML - Example Case ].