Template Engine

Some study and reading about template engines

First there is JSP. Then someone said it became a "tag soup". Also because JSP can write anything into page, people DO write anything - things should not be put in a view.

Then, talking about template engine, often mentioned names are : Apache Velocity, Apache FreeMarker, Thymeleaf, and Pebble (top of google searching anyway)

The opposite to JSP are "logic-less" template engines. Those engines do not allow much to do in template, forcing logic into codes. Then someone argue this approach forces view logic (for example, even/odd rows) into code. Logic-less engines are:

• https://mustache.github.io/
• handle bar

So, the foremost important thing to ask:

• there will be business logic - they should not go into views anyway
• there will be view logic - such as different styles for even/odd rows - where they goes? (code/template)
• template

And then, someone argued not using template at all: http://www.workingsoftware.com.au/page/Your_templating_engine_sucks_and_everything_you_have_ever_written_is_spaghetti_code_yes_you

This article argues several points:

• Definition of "spaghetti code" - if more than one language / markup language is used, it's spaghetti code
• Even "logic-less" template has logic in it (yes that's true)
• Traditional templates do two things:
  • fragment and inclusion (reuse) UI assets such as header/footer
  • some logic - some "view" logic
• Advocate template animation:
  • template (static HTML) only do fragment and inclusion - even HTML editing tools do that
  • use DOM manipulation
• Benefit
  • simpler training - no one learn more than they know (JSP? all those syntax and tags? no!)
  • designers are not exposed to development environment - they only design HTML, they also don't wait for developer for certain feature

Ok, but I haven't seen a working "Template Animation" solution, yet.

Now I tried a little bit about Handlebar and finds:

If the object model does not very fit with the view model, some code is unavoidable. For example, for Handlebar, the view model is basically just: array & map. If I have some ... (I haven't think about this carefully, better return here later)