Re: Looking for HTML templating system

< ^ > P N |<>| ^ _>< --- | ~ ...Help
> I am looking for a templating system for my forum
> (http://rforum.rubyforge.org). ..  I can't use most of the templating
> engines is that I want to make the forum multi-language, so that I can't
> write:
> [%if logged_in%]
> Logged in as [%var username%]
> [%endif%]
> but would have to write something like
> [%if logged_in%]
> [%var text_logged_in_as(username)%]
> [%endif%]
> Does anyone know a templating system I could use?



I'm just about to do the same thing (mutli-language), and here's the solution 
I came up with (so far)...

If your output is going to be multi-language and filled with variables, then 
your HTML template is going to be way more template than HTML.   Like your 
example above.

At that point, it seems smarter to shift your focus from "HTML templates to 
put my Ruby in" to "Ruby class that puts out HTML".

## QUICK UNTESTED EXAMPLE:

## HTML_Template.rb
class HTML_Template
	def initialize(lang)
		@lang=lang
	end
	def header(pagetitle)
		'<html><head><title>%s - %s</title><head><body>' % [@lang['sitename'], 
pagetitle]
	end
	def loginbox_loggedin(username)
		'<div class="loginbox">%s %s</div>' % [@lang['logged_in_as'], username]
	end
	def loginbox_anon
		'<div class="loginbox">%s</div>' % [@lang['please_log_in']]
	end
	# ... etc
	# one method for each often-used "chunk" of your website
	def footer
		'</body></html>'
	end
end

## Lang.rb
english = {
'sitename' => 'RForum',
'logged_in_as' => 'Logged in as',
'please_log_in' => 'Please log in'
# etc
}

## welcome.rbx
load 'Lang.rb'
require 'HTML_Template'
ht = HTML_Template.new(english)
puts ht.header
if username
	puts ht.loginbox_loggedin(username)
else
	puts ht.loginbox_anon
end
puts ht.footer




I might be totally wrong with this.  I haven't started my new project yet 
because I have to finish something else first.  But it's just an idea, and 
I'd love to hear any other suggestions.