Contemplate

Light-weight, fast and flexible object-oriented template engine for PHP, Python and JavaScript (Node.js, Browser and XPCOM)

version: 1.6.0

The original inspiration came from an old post by John Resig (http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-micro-templating/)

see also:

• ModelView a simple, fast, powerful and flexible MVVM framework for JavaScript
• tico a tiny, super-simple MVC framework for PHP
• LoginManager a simple, barebones agnostic login manager for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• SimpleCaptcha a simple, image-based, mathematical captcha with increasing levels of difficulty for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• Dromeo a flexible, and powerful agnostic router for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• PublishSubscribe a simple and flexible publish-subscribe pattern implementation for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• Importer simple class & dependency manager and loader for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• Contemplate a fast and versatile isomorphic template engine for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• HtmlWidget html widgets, made as simple as possible, both client and server, both desktop and mobile, can be used as (template) plugins and/or standalone for PHP, JavaScript, Python (can be used as plugins for Contemplate)
• Paginator simple and flexible pagination controls generator for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• Formal a simple and versatile (Form) Data validation framework based on Rules for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• Dialect a cross-vendor & cross-platform SQL Query Builder, based on GrammarTemplate, for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• DialectORM an Object-Relational-Mapper (ORM) and Object-Document-Mapper (ODM), based on Dialect, for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• Unicache a simple and flexible agnostic caching framework, supporting various platforms, for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• Xpresion a simple and flexible eXpression parser engine (with custom functions and variables support), based on GrammarTemplate, for PHP, JavaScript, Python
• Regex Analyzer/Composer Regular Expression Analyzer and Composer for PHP, JavaScript, Python

Contents

• Online Playground Example
• Features
• API Reference
• Dependencies
• Changelog
• Performance

Features:

• Uniform functionality, Engine Implementations for PHP , Python , JavaScript (NOTE `javascript` engine supports both sync and async operations both callback-based and promise-based)
• Simple and light-weight (only one relatively small class for each implementation, no other dependencies) `~50kB` minified, `~16kB` zipped
• Fast both in parsing and rendering. Can cache templates dynamically (filesystem caching has 3 modes, `NONE` which uses only in-memory caching, `NOUPDATE` which caches the templates only once and `AUTOUPDATE` which re-creates the cached template if original template has changed, useful for debugging)
• Generated cached template code is formatted and annotated with comments, for easy debugging (note: `javascript` cached templates are UMD modules which can be used in both `node.js`/`AMD`/`XPCOM`/`browser`/`es6 module fallback`)
• Syntax close to PHP (there was an effort to keep the engine syntax as close to `PHP` syntax as possible, to avoid learning another language syntax)
• Easily extensible , configurable
• Object-oriented, templates implement inheritance and polymorphism in a full object-oriented manner (see below)
• Template Inheritance , templates can extend/inherit other templates using `extends` directive and override blocks using `block` , `endblock` directives (see examples)
• Direct Super reference , templates can use the `super` template function to directly reference (and call) a super block if needed in OO manner (see examples)
• Nested Blocks , template blocks can be nested and repeated in multiple ways (see examples)
• Supports multiple dynamic contexts , and contextual settings so that different modules of an application can use the engine independantly (see examples and manual)
• Date manipulation similar to `PHP` format (ie `date` function).
• Loops can have optional `elsefor` statement when no data, or data is empty (see tests)
• Templates can `include` other templates (similar to `PHP` `include` directive), these includes wil be compiled into the the template that called them
• Templates can call another template using `tpl` function, these templates are called as templates subroutines and parsed by themselves
• Custom Plugins , can be used as template functions to enhance/extend the engine functionality (see examples)
• Support for literal PHP/JS/PY code. Literal php or javascript or python code can be included as is (properly indented) and will be merged into the compiled output (see examples). Same template can include literal code in all supported languages, only the code relevant to the current engine will actually be compiled and used.

Dependencies

• Only 3 classes are used (`Contemplate.php`, `Contemplate.js`, `Contemplate.py`), no other dependencies
• `PHP` `5.2+` supported
• `Node` `0.8+` supported
• `Python` `2.x` or `3.x` supported
• all browsers
• `Contemplate` is also a `XPCOM JavaScript Component` (Firefox) (e.g to be used in firefox browser addons/plugins for templating)

Performance

Note: The engines included in the following tests have different philosophy and in general provide different features. These are only illustrative modulo all the other features.

Render Time

The following tests were made on a revision of a 2013 jsperf test for resig micro-templating, handlebars, contemplate, mustache, underscore, doT and kendoui template engines.

Previous tests are here jsperf/0.6.5, jsperf/0.6.7, jsperf/0.7, jsperf/0.7.1, jsperf/0.8, jsperf/0.8.1, jsperf/1.0.0, jsperf/1.0.0 (1.0.0+ format)

Contemplate has consistently top performance on all browsers.

Parse / Compilation Time

The following tests involve swig, handlebars, contemplate and mustache template engines.

Previous tests are here jsperf/0.6.7, jsperf/0.7, jsperf/0.7.1, jsperf/0.8, jsperf/0.8.1, jsperf/1.0.0

Contemplate has consistently top performance on all browsers.