template extending about grunt-ejs-static

[shaekuronen]

This sounds like it could be a pretty cool feature. EJS doesn't have blocks per se, so I've been looking at options for adding equivalent structure. Would be great to see how you're thinking about implementing.

Do you have time to put together a pull request?

[oleggromov]

Not sure about pull request right now, sorry :(
I've found http://nunjucks.jlongster.com/ template engine that already has perfect template inheritance and extending. Nunjucks fits my needs, so I'm adapting to use it. Maybe EJS itself should have extending feature, shouldn't it? Or you're going to implement this absent feature only in grunt-ejs-static task?

[shaekuronen]

Thanks for the feedback Oleg! Took a look at how Nunjucks handles inheritance http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/templates/#template-inheritance

In Nunjucks, the base template contains blocks, which are chunks of the template that child templates can override.

The same thing can be accomplished with this project, though the implementation is different. The equivalent to the base template is the layout file, which can be re-used multiple times.

First, create a layout file default.ejs

<% include ../templates/global/head %>

<% include ../templates/global/header %>

<% include ../templates/variable_content/router %>

<% include ../templates/global/footer %>

<% include ../templates/global/scripts %>

<% include ../templates/global/foot %>

Next create a router template router.ejs. EJS does not seem to like switch statements, return, or if elses, so assigning file_name to false is used instead of of one of those options.

// case 1 
<% if (file_name === 'contact') { %>
  <% include ../contact/body %>
  <% file_name = false; %>
<% } %>
// end case 1

// case 2 
<% if (file_name === 'about') { %>
  <% include ../about/body %>
  <% file_name = false; %>
<% } %>
// end case 2 

// default case 
<% if (file_name) { %>
  <% include ../variable_content/default_content %>
<% } %>
// end default case 

The variable file_name is the key for each file which is defined in the main data file (in the demo, data/data.json). For example, in data.ejs, you would define the layout like this

"contact": {
  "path_to_layout": "demo/dev/layouts/default.ejs",
  "meta": {
    "title": "Contact",
    "description": "Compile static html from ejs templates",
    "keywords": "gruntplugin, ejs, static html, static site generator"
  }
},

Thanks again and good luck with your project!