elua

Embedded Lua templating

Tutorial

local elua = require "elua"
local template = elua.compile([[
  Hello <%= name %>,
  Here are your items:
  <% for i, item in pairs(items) do %>
   * <%= name -%>
  <% end %>
]])

print(template({
  name: "leafo",
  items: { "Shoe", "Reflector", "Scarf" }
}))

Reference

The following tags are supported

• <% lua_code %> runs lua code verbatim
• <%= lua_expression %> writes result of expression to output, HTML escaped
• <%- lua_expression %> same as above but with no HTML escaping

Any of the embedded Lua tags can use the -%> closing tag to suppress a following newline if there is one, for example: <%= 'hello' -%>.

The module can be loaded by doing:

local elua = require "elua"

Methods

func = elua.compile(template_string)

Compiles the template into a function, the returned function can be called to render the template. The function takes one argument: a table to use as the environment within the template. _G is used to look up a variable if it can't be found in the environment.

result = elua.render(template_string, env)

Compiles and renders the template in a single call. If you are concerned about high performance this should be avoided in favor of compile if it's possible to cache the compiled template.

Errors

If any of the methods fail they will return nil, followed by the error message.

How it works

• Templates are transparently translated into Lua code and then loaded as a function. Rendering a compiled template is very fast.
• Any compile time errors are rewritten to show the original source position in the template.
• The parser is aware of strings so you can put closing tags inside of a string literal without any problems.

License

MIT, Copyright (C) 2013 by Leaf Corcoran