Inky

Inky is an HTML-based templating language that converts simple HTML into complex, responsive email-ready HTML. Designed for Foundation for Emails, a responsive email framework from ZURB.

Give Inky simple HTML like this:

<row>
  <columns large="6"></columns>
  <columns large="6"></columns>
</row>

And get complicated, but battle-tested, email-ready HTML like this:

<table class="row">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <th class="small-12 large-6 columns first">
        <table>
          <tr>
            <th class="expander"></th>
          </tr>
        </table>
      </th>
      <th class="small-12 large-6 columns first">
        <table>
          <tr>
            <th class="expander"></th>
          </tr>
        </table>
      </th>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Installation

npm install inky --save-dev

Usage

Inky can be used standalone, as a Gulp plugin, or with a CLI. You can also access the Inky parser class directly.

Standalone

var inky = require('inky');

inky({
  src: 'src/pages/**/*.html',
  dest: 'dist'
}, function() {
  console.log('Done parsing.');
});

With Gulp

var inky = require('inky')

function parse() {
  gulp.src('src/pages/**/*.html')
    .pipe(inky())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('dist'));
}

Command Line

Install inky-cli to get the inky command. The first option is a glob of input files, and the second option is a folder to output them to. Add the --watch flag to re-compile when files are added or changed.

npm install inky-cli --global
inky src/pages/**/*.html dist --watch

Doesn't support advanced settings at the moment.

Plugin Settings

• src (String): Glob of files to process. You don't need to supply this when using Inky with Gulp.
• dest (String): Folder to output processed files to. You don't need to supply this when using Inky with Gulp.
• components (Object): Tag names for custom components. See custom components below to learn more.
• columnCount (Number): Column count for the grid. Make sure your Foundation for Emails project has the same column count in the Sass as well.

Custom Elements

Inky simplifies the process of creating HTML emails by expanding out simple tags like <row> and <column> into full table syntax. The names of the tags can be changed with the components setting.

Here are the names of the defaults:

{
  button: 'button',
  row: 'row',
  columns: 'columns',
  container: 'container',
  inky: 'inky',
  blockGrid: 'block-grid',
  menu: 'menu',
  menuItem: 'item'
}

Programmatic Use

The Inky parser can be accessed directly for programmatic use. It takes in a Cheerio object of HTML, and gives you back a converted Cheerio object.

var Inky = require('inky').Inky;
var cheerio = require('cheerio');

var options = {};
var input = '<row></row>';

// The same plugin settings are passed in the constructor
var i = new Inky(options);
var html = cheerio.load(input)

// Now unleash the fury
var convertedHtml = i.releaseTheKraken(html);

// The return value is a Cheerio object. Get the string value with .html()
convertedHtml.html();