Template-GLib is a library to help you generate text based on a template and user defined state. Template-GLib does not use a language runtime, so it is safe to use from any GObject-Introspectable language.

Template-GLib allows you to access properties on GObjects as well as call simple methods via GObject-Introspection. See our examples for how to call methods.

• Christian Hergert chergert@redhat.com

See examples/ for more detailed examples.

The following is contrived to show you the versatility of the syntax. Template expressions and blocks are defined inside of {{ and }}.

{{if (foo.bar)*10/30.0+1 != foo.baz()}}
  {{for item in foo.list}}
    {{item.foo}}
  {{end}}
{{else if x > 10}}
bar
{{else}}
foo
{{end}}

• {{include "path-to-template.tmpl"}}

• {{if <expression>}}
• {{else if <expression>}}
• {{else <expression>}}
• {{for <identifier> in <expression>}}

if and for should have a closing {{end}}

Expressions are parsed using a formal grammer, which you can find in the flex and bison files at src/tmpl-expr-scanner.l and tmpl-expr-parser.y respectively.

All numbers are currently represented as double-precision floating point. This may change in the near future.

These can be used inside of {{ and }} to be evaluated. They can also be used as expressions using the above conditional blocks.

true                       => true
false                      => false
" "                        => " "
" " * 3                    => "   "
1 + 3                      => 4
1 - 3                      => -2
1 * 3                      => 3
1 / 3                      => .333333
a = (1*3)                  => (a assigned 3)
a * a                      => 9

func min(a,b) = if a < b then a; else b;;
min(1,2)                   => 1

obj.foo                    => (Gets GObject property "foo")
obj.foo=1                  => (Sets GObject property "foo")
obj.foo()                  => (Calls foo() on obj, via GObject Introspection)

# Note that we do not yet have support for accessing
# children of the Typelib. That is coming.
require Gtk                => (GITypelib of Gtk)
require Gtk version "3.0"  => (GITypelib of Gtk, requiring 3.0)

See TmplTemplateLoader to control the lookup of included templates. You probably want to do this if you are using this in something like a webserver. By default, the search path is empty, and will not allow including external resources.

Search paths will not allow loading templates above the search path entry.

You can assign state into the template using TmplScope.

/* scope can be inherited, by passing a parent instead of NULL */
TmplScope *scope = tmpl_scope_new (NULL);
TmplSymbol *symbol = tmpl_scope_get (scope, "foo");

tmpl_symbol_assign_boolean (symbol, TRUE);
tmpl_symbol_assign_double (symbol, 123.4);
tmpl_symbol_assign_string (symbol, "foo");
tmpl_symbol_assign_object (symbol, g_object_new (MY_TYPE_FOO, NULL));

/* or if you can assign via a GValue */
GValue value = G_VALUE_INIT;
g_value_set_boxed (&value, my_boxed);
tmpl_symbol_assign_value (symbol, &value);
g_value_unset (&value);

See CONTRIBUTING.md for information on how you can contribute.