[Play 2.3.8] If condition bring line feed in scala template

[puneetar]

Hi all,

I am facing issue with if conditions in scala template. In the following circumstance, the html will have white spaces and line breaks in between the two divs.

<div>
    content in previous div.
</div>
@if(condition) {
    <div>
        content in next div
    </div>

}

[jroper]

Is that problem?

[puneetar]

Yup, because of the line breaks and white spaces, the CSS breaks.. There is extra spacing added in between the spaces.

[jroper]

What do you mean the css breaks? Space between divs should have no impact. Anyway, if you want to remove the whitespace, you can do this:

<div>
    content in previous div.
</div>
@if(condition) {<div>
        content in next div
    </div>

}

[marcospereira]

@puneetar could you please send us a comprehensive test case? If you could show us the html with the CSS and explain exactly what is broken, it will be easier to understand what is happening.

[slorber]

The problem is that it is not easy to use @if conditions without introducing whitespaces, even when it's not intended to append a white space.

@Messages("emails.invitedToSharing.sharedTheSpace")
@categoryName(categoryMailData)
@Messages("emails.invitedToSharing.withYou")
@if(categoryMailData.isCommunitySubCategory) {
    ,<span> @Messages("emails.invitedToSharing.inCommunity")</span>           
    <span>@categoryName(categoryMailData.inCommunity.get)</span>  
}

The output is:
Edward Silhol shared the space CategoryName with you , in community CommunityName

Expected:

Edward Silhol shared the space CategoryName with you, in community CommunityName

(I don't want a space between "with you" and the ",")

I can confirm the solution of @jroper works, but this really makes the HTML much more unreadable and I guess many developers will try to reformat it, creating a bug...

@Messages("emails.invitedToSharing.sharedTheSpace")
@categoryName(categoryMailData)
@Messages("emails.invitedToSharing.withYou")@if(categoryMailData.isCommunitySubCategory) {,
    <span>@Messages("emails.invitedToSharing.inCommunity")</span>
    <span>@categoryName(categoryMailData.inCommunity.get)</span>
}

[wsargent]

@slorber in those situations, you're better off using a helper (either in a Scala file, a Twirl template, or a fragment) that will do the logic for you.

@Messages("emails.invitedToSharing.sharedTheSpace")
@categoryName(categoryMailData)
@helper.intro(categoryMailData)

import views.helper.html

object intro {
   def apply(categoryMailData: CategoryMailData): Html = {
     ...
   }
}

[slorber]

yes that could do the job too

[steinybot]

This makes Twirl impractical for plain text templating, say for example when you have both HTML and plain text emails.

I quite like having the template separate from my code.

I think the approach that Freemarker takes with whitespace stripping and an additional compress directive is pretty good and solves the simple cases.

[steinybot]

Another solution that may work is to allow any whitespace to go between the keyword and the brace.

Here is an example of how I want to use Twirl:

baseEmail.scala.txt

@(givenName: String)(content: Txt)
Hi @givenName,

@content

Thanks

newAccountEmail.scala.txt

@(givenName: String, admin: Boolean, url: String)
@baseEmail(givenName) {
@if(admin) {
An administrator account has been created for you.

Once you have activated your account, you can create accounts for other users in your organization.
} else {
An account has been created for you.
}

Use the link below to set the a password and activate your account.

Set password: @url
}

The current workaround:

newAccountEmail.scala.txt

@(givenName: String, admin: Boolean, url: String)
@baseEmail(givenName) {@if(admin) {An administrator account has been created for you.

Once you have activated your account, you can create accounts for other users in your organization.} else {An account has been created for you.}

Use the link below to set the a password and activate your account.

Set password: @url}

If braces could go on the following line it would be a little bit better:

newAccountEmail.scala.txt

@(givenName: String, admin: Boolean, url: String)
@baseEmail(givenName)
{@if(admin)
{An administrator account has been created for you.

Once you have activated your account, you can create accounts for other users in your organization.}
else
{An account has been created for you.}

Use the link below to set the a password and activate your account.

Set password: @url}

Ideal solution would be to have some kind of directive that allows the whitespace stripping from lines that only contain tags. At least this would be backwards compatible. Something like: @setting(settings.stripTagLines, true)