A Handlebars template loader for Webpack
* 1.0: Loader now works with Webpack 4. Still a beta release.
Table of Contents
npm install handlebars-template-loader
Since version 0.5.4, this loaders does not include Handlebars in its dependency list. Make sure to install Handlebars before running webpack. Read npm/npm#6565 for details.
module.exports = {
//...
module: {
loaders: [
{ test: /\.hbs/, loader: "handlebars-template-loader" }
]
},
node: {
fs: "empty" // avoids error messages
}
};
<!-- File: hello.hbs -->
<p>Hello {{name}}</p>
// File: app.js
var compiled = require('./hello.hbs');
return compiled({name: "world"});
// File: helpers.js
// Get Handlebars instance
var Handlebars = require('handlebars-template-loader/runtime');
Handlebars.registerHelper('list', function(items, options) {
var out = "<ul>";
for(var i=0, l=items.length; i<l; i++) {
out = out + "<li>" + options.fn(items[i]) + "</li>";
}
return out + "</ul>";
});
Handlebars.registerHelper('link', function(text, url) {
text = Handlebars.Utils.escapeExpression(text);
url = Handlebars.Utils.escapeExpression(url);
var result = '<a href="' + url + '">' + text + '</a>';
return new Handlebars.SafeString(result);
});
// File: main.js
// Include template helpers
require("./helpers.js");
// Get Handlebars instance
var Handlebars = require('handlebars-template-loader/runtime');
// Require partial
var partial = require('path/to/my/_partial.hbs');
// Register partial
Handlebars.registerPartial('my_partial_name', partial);
When debugging a large single page app with the DevTools, it's often hard to find the template that contains a bug. With the following config a HTML comment is prepended to the template with the relative path in it (e.g. <!-- view/user/edit.html -->
).
module.exports = {
//...
module: {
loaders: [
{
test: /\.hbs$/,
loader: "handlebars-template-loader",
query: {
prependFilenameComment: __dirname,
}
}
]
}
};
In order to load images you must install either the file-loader
or the url-loader
package.
module.exports = {
//...
module: {
loaders: [
//...
{ test: /\.hbs/, loader: "handlebars-template-loader" },
{ test: /\.jpg/, loader: "file-loader" },
{ test: /\.png/, loader: "url-loader?mimetype=image/png" },
]
}
};
<!-- Require image using file-loader -->
<img src="img/portrait.jpg">
<!-- Require image using url-loader -->
<img src="img/icon.png">
Images with an absolute path are not translated unless a root
option is defined
<!-- Using root = undefined => no translation -->
<img src="/not_translated.jpg">
<!-- Using root = 'images' => require('images/image.jpg') -->
<img src="/image.jpg">
In order to deactivate image processing define the attributes
option as an empty array.
module.exports = {
//...
module: {
loaders: [
{
test: /\.hbs$/,
loader: "handlebars-template-loader",
query: {
attributes: []
}
}
]
}
};
You could also add which attributes need to be processed in the form of pairs tag:attribute.
module.exports = {
//...
module: {
loaders: [
{
test: /\.hbs$/,
loader: "handlebars-template-loader",
query: {
attributes: ['img:src', 'x-img:src']
}
}
]
}
};
Dynamic attributes won't be afected by this behaviour by default.
<!-- Ignore "root" argument if attribute contains a template expression -->
<img src="/img/{{doge}}.png" class="doge-img">
In order to append the root directory you'll need to specify the parseDynamicRoutes
argument.
module.exports = {
//...
module: {
loaders: [
{
test: /\.html$/,
loader: "handlebars-template-loader",
query: {
root: "myapp",
parseDynamicRoutes: true
}
}
]
}
};
<!-- Attribute now translates to "myapp/img/{{doge}}.png" -->
<img src="/img/cat-<%- currentCat.url %>.png" class="doge-img">
If you have a custom location for your Handlebars runtime module then you can set that in your query
object via the runtimePath
property. This is the path to the Handlebars runtime that every .hbs
file will require and use. By default this loader looks up the absolute path to the handlebars/runtime
in your node_modules
folder. Changing this property is useful if you are doing somethign non-standard with your Handlebar templates, for example setting an alias for the handlebars/runtime
path.
module.exports = {
//...
module: {
loaders: [
{
test: /\.html$/,
loader: "handlebars-template-loader",
query: {
runtimePath: 'handlebars/runtime'
}
}
]
}
};
Handlebars does support additional compilation options that you can specify in your query
object literal.
module.exports = {
//...
module: {
loaders: [
{
test: /\.html$/,
loader: "handlebars-template-loader",
query: {
root: "myapp",
strict: true,
noEscape: true
}
}
]
}
};
Macros allow additional features like including templates or inserting custom text in a compiled templates.
The require
macro expects a path to a handlebars template. The macro is then translated to a webpack require expression that evaluates the template using the same arguments.
<h4>Profile</h4>
Name: <strong>{{name}}</strong>
<br/>
Surname: <strong>{{surname}}</strong>
<div class="profile-details">
@require('profile-details.hbs')
</div>
While the require
macro expects a resource that returns a function, the include
macro can be used for resources that return plain text. For example, we can include text loaded through the html-loader
directly in our template.
<div class="wiki">
<h3>Introduction</h3>
@include('intro.htm')
<h3>Authors</h3>
@include('authors.htm')
</div>
The repeat
macro will repeat the given string the amount of times as specified by the second argument (default to 1). It will only accept string literals.
<p>Lorem ipsum</p>
@repeat('<br/>', 3)
<p>Sit amet</p>
@repeat('\n')
We can include additional macros by defining them in the webpack configuration file. Remember that the value returned by a macro is inserted as plain javascript, so in order to insert a custom text we need to use nested quotes. For example, let's say that we want a macro that includes a copyright string in our template.
// File: webpack.config.js
module.exports = {
// ...
module: {
loaders: {
// ...
{ test: /\.hbs/, loader: "handlebars-template-loader" },
}
},
macros: {
copyright: function () {
return "'<p>Copyright FakeCorp 2014 - 2015</p>'";
}
}
}
We then invoke our macro from within the template as usual.
<footer>
@copyright()
</footer>
You can disable macros if you are a bit unsure about their usage or just simply want faster processing. This is achieved by setting the parseMacros
options to false.
module.exports = {
// ...
module: {
loaders: {
// ...
{
test: /\.hbs/,
loader: "handlebars-template-loader",
query: {
parseMacros: false
}
},
}
}
}
Macros can accept an arbitrary number of arguments. Only boolean, strings and numeric types are supported.
// File: webpack.config.js
module.exports = {
// ...
module: {
loaders: {
// ...
{ test: /\.html$/, loader: "handlebars-template-loader" },
}
},
macros: {
header: function (size, content) {
return "'<h" + size + ">" + content + "</h" + size + ">'";
}
}
}
@header(1, 'Welcome')
<p>Lorem ipsum</p>
@header(3, 'Contents')
<p>Sit amet</p>
Macro expressions can be escaped with the \
character.
@repeat('<br/>', 3)
\@escaped()
@custom_macro()
Translates to
<br/><br/><br/>
@escaped()
custom string
Released under the MIT license.