Writing Templates¶

A kBars template is text with tags in it — {{ name }}, {{#if …}}, {{> partial }}, and so on — that get replaced or expanded when the template is rendered against a context: a JSON- or YAML-shaped bag of data (an object with named fields, possibly nested, possibly containing lists).

Hello {{ name }}!

Rendered against a context where name is "Alice", this produces:

Hello Alice!

kBars mixes syntax you may already know from Mustache, Handlebars, and Liquid — see Coming from Handlebars, Mustache, or Liquid if one of those is familiar. Otherwise, start with Template Basics and work through the pages below in order; each builds on the last.

Where to next¶

• Cheat Sheet — a one-page syntax reference, once you already know the language and just need a quick lookup.
• Coming from Handlebars, Mustache, or Liquid — a fast map from what you already know to what kBars calls it.
• Template Basics — text, delimiters, comments, raw blocks, whitespace trimming.
• Interpolation — how {{ identifier }} resolves against the context.
• Expressions — literals, binary operators, and truthiness.
• Blocks — {{#if}}, {{#unless}}, {{#each}}, {{#with}}.
• Transforms — the | pipeline for reshaping a value before it's interpolated.
• Partials — {{> key }}, reusing one template from inside another.
• Environment Properties and Scoped Variables — reading and binding values outside the current context.
• Security and Escaping Notes — what {{ }} HTML-escapes for you, and what it doesn't.
• Number Rendering — how numeric values render as text.