[![Build Status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/visionmedia/jade.png)](http://travis-ci.org/visionmedia/jade) # Jade - template engine Jade is a high performance template engine heavily influenced by [Haml](http://haml-lang.com) and implemented with JavaScript for [node](http://nodejs.org). For discussion join the [Google Group](http://groups.google.com/group/jadejs). ## Test drive You can test drive Jade online [here](http://naltatis.github.com/jade-syntax-docs). ## README Contents - [Features](#a1) - [Implementations](#a2) - [Installation](#a3) - [Browser Support](#a4) - [Public API](#a5) - [Syntax](#a6) - [Line Endings](#a6-1) - [Tags](#a6-2) - [Tag Text](#a6-3) - [Comments](#a6-4) - [Block Comments](#a6-5) - [Nesting](#a6-6) - [Block Expansion](#a6-7) - [Case](#a6-8) - [Attributes](#a6-9) - [HTML](#a6-10) - [Doctypes](#a6-11) - [Filters](#a7) - [Code](#a8) - [Iteration](#a9) - [Conditionals](#a10) - [Template inheritance](#a11) - [Block append / prepend](#a12) - [Includes](#a13) - [Mixins](#a14) - [Generated Output](#a15) - [Example Makefile](#a16) - [jade(1)](#a17) - [Tutorials](#a18) - [License](#a19) ## Features - client-side support - great readability - flexible indentation - block-expansion - mixins - static includes - attribute interpolation - code is escaped by default for security - contextual error reporting at compile & run time - executable for compiling jade templates via the command line - html 5 mode (the default doctype) - optional memory caching - combine dynamic and static tag classes - parse tree manipulation via _filters_ - template inheritance - block append / prepend - supports [Express JS](http://expressjs.com) out of the box - transparent iteration over objects, arrays, and even non-enumerables via `each` - block comments - no tag prefix - filters - :stylus must have [stylus](http://github.com/LearnBoost/stylus) installed - :less must have [less.js](http://github.com/cloudhead/less.js) installed - :markdown must have [markdown-js](http://github.com/evilstreak/markdown-js), [node-discount](http://github.com/visionmedia/node-discount), or [marked](http://github.com/chjj/marked) installed - :cdata - :coffeescript must have [coffee-script](http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/) installed - [Emacs Mode](https://github.com/brianc/jade-mode) - [Vim Syntax](https://github.com/digitaltoad/vim-jade) - [TextMate Bundle](http://github.com/miksago/jade-tmbundle) - [Coda/SubEtha syntax Mode](https://github.com/aaronmccall/jade.mode) - [Screencasts](http://tjholowaychuk.com/post/1004255394/jade-screencast-template-engine-for-nodejs) - [html2jade](https://github.com/donpark/html2jade) converter ## Implementations - [php](http://github.com/everzet/jade.php) - [scala](http://scalate.fusesource.org/versions/snapshot/documentation/scaml-reference.html) - [ruby](http://github.com/stonean/slim) - [python](https://github.com/SyrusAkbary/pyjade) - [java](https://github.com/neuland/jade4j) ## Installation via npm: ```bash $ npm install jade ``` ## Browser Support To compile jade to a single file compatible for client-side use simply execute: ```bash $ make jade.js ``` Alternatively, if uglifyjs is installed via npm (`npm install uglify-js`) you may execute the following which will create both files. However each release builds these for you. ```bash $ make jade.min.js ``` By default Jade instruments templates with line number statements such as `__.lineno = 3` for debugging purposes. When used in a browser it's useful to minimize this boiler plate, you can do so by passing the option `{ compileDebug: false }`. The following template ```jade p Hello #{name} ``` Can then be as small as the following generated function: ```js function anonymous(locals, attrs, escape, rethrow) { var buf = []; with (locals || {}) { var interp; buf.push('\n

Hello ' + escape((interp = name) == null ? '' : interp) + '\n

'); } return buf.join(""); } ``` Through the use of Jade's `./runtime.js` you may utilize these pre-compiled templates on the client-side _without_ Jade itself, all you need is the associated utility functions (in runtime.js), which are then available as `jade.attrs`, `jade.escape` etc. To enable this you should pass `{ client: true }` to `jade.compile()` to tell Jade to reference the helper functions via `jade.attrs`, `jade.escape` etc. ```js function anonymous(locals, attrs, escape, rethrow) { var attrs = jade.attrs, escape = jade.escape, rethrow = jade.rethrow; var buf = []; with (locals || {}) { var interp; buf.push('\n

Hello ' + escape((interp = name) == null ? '' : interp) + '\n

'); } return buf.join(""); } ``` ## Public API ```js var jade = require('jade'); // Compile a function var fn = jade.compile('string of jade', options); fn(locals); ``` ### Options - `self` Use a `self` namespace to hold the locals _(false by default)_ - `locals` Local variable object - `filename` Used in exceptions, and required when using includes - `debug` Outputs tokens and function body generated - `compiler` Compiler to replace jade's default - `compileDebug` When `false` no debug instrumentation is compiled - `pretty` Add pretty-indentation whitespace to output _(false by default)_ ## Syntax ### Line Endings **CRLF** and **CR** are converted to **LF** before parsing. ### Tags A tag is simply a leading word: ```jade html ``` for example is converted to `` tags can also have ids: ```jade div#container ``` which would render `
` how about some classes? ```jade div.user-details ``` renders `
` multiple classes? _and_ an id? sure: ```jade div#foo.bar.baz ``` renders `
` div div div sure is annoying, how about: ```jade #foo .bar ``` which is syntactic sugar for what we have already been doing, and outputs: ```html
``` ### Tag Text Simply place some content after the tag: ```jade p wahoo! ``` renders `

wahoo!

`. well cool, but how about large bodies of text: ```jade p | foo bar baz | rawr rawr | super cool | go jade go ``` renders `

foo bar baz rawr.....

` interpolation? yup! both types of text can utilize interpolation, if we passed `{ name: 'tj', email: 'tj@vision-media.ca' }` to the compiled function we can do the following: ```jade #user #{name} <#{email}> ``` outputs `
tj <tj@vision-media.ca>
` Actually want `#{}` for some reason? escape it! ```jade p \#{something} ``` now we have `

#{something}

` We can also utilize the unescaped variant `!{html}`, so the following will result in a literal script tag: ```jade - var html = "" | !{html} ``` Nested tags that also contain text can optionally use a text block: ```jade label | Username: input(name='user[name]') ``` or immediate tag text: ```jade label Username: input(name='user[name]') ``` Tags that accept _only_ text such as `script` and `style` do not need the leading `|` character, for example: ```jade html head title Example script if (foo) { bar(); } else { baz(); } ``` Once again as an alternative, we may use a trailing `.` to indicate a text block, for example: ```jade p. foo asdf asdf asdfasdfaf asdf asd. ``` outputs: ```html

foo asdf asdf asdfasdfaf asdf asd.

``` This however differs from a trailing `.` followed by a space, which although is ignored by the Jade parser, tells Jade that this period is a literal: ```jade p . ``` outputs: ```html

.

``` It should be noted that text blocks should be doubled escaped. For example if you desire the following output. ```html

foo\bar

``` use: ```jade p. foo\\bar ``` ### Comments Single line comments currently look the same as JavaScript comments, aka `//` and must be placed on their own line: ```jade // just some paragraphs p foo p bar ``` would output ```html

foo

bar

``` Jade also supports unbuffered comments, by simply adding a hyphen: ```jade //- will not output within markup p foo p bar ``` outputting ```html

foo

bar

``` ### Block Comments A block comment is legal as well: ```jade body // #content h1 Example ``` outputting ```html ``` Jade supports conditional-comments as well, for example: ```jade head //if lt IE 8 script(src='/ie-sucks.js') ``` outputs: ```html ``` ### Nesting Jade supports nesting to define the tags in a natural way: ```jade ul li.first a(href='#') foo li a(href='#') bar li.last a(href='#') baz ``` ### Block Expansion Block expansion allows you to create terse single-line nested tags, the following example is equivalent to the nesting example above. ```jade ul li.first: a(href='#') foo li: a(href='#') bar li.last: a(href='#') baz ``` ### Case The case statement takes the following form: ```jade html body friends = 10 case friends when 0 p you have no friends when 1 p you have a friend default p you have #{friends} friends ``` Block expansion may also be used: ```jade friends = 5 html body case friends when 0: p you have no friends when 1: p you have a friend default: p you have #{friends} friends ``` ### Attributes Jade currently supports `(` and `)` as attribute delimiters. ```jade a(href='/login', title='View login page') Login ``` When a value is `undefined` or `null` the attribute is _not_ added, so this is fine, it will not compile `something="null"`. ```jade div(something=null) ``` Boolean attributes are also supported: ```jade input(type="checkbox", checked) ``` Boolean attributes with code will only output the attribute when `true`: ```jade input(type="checkbox", checked=someValue) ``` Multiple lines work too: ```jade input(type='checkbox', name='agreement', checked) ``` Multiple lines without the comma work fine: ```jade input(type='checkbox' name='agreement' checked) ``` Funky whitespace? fine: ```jade input( type='checkbox' name='agreement' checked) ``` Colons work: ```jade rss(xmlns:atom="atom") ``` Suppose we have the `user` local `{ id: 12, name: 'tobi' }` and we wish to create an anchor tag with `href` pointing to "/user/12" we could use regular javascript concatenation: ```jade a(href='/user/' + user.id)= user.name ``` or we could use jade's interpolation, which I added because everyone using Ruby or CoffeeScript seems to think this is legal js..: ```jade a(href='/user/#{user.id}')= user.name ``` The `class` attribute is special-cased when an array is given, allowing you to pass an array such as `bodyClasses = ['user', 'authenticated']` directly: ```jade body(class=bodyClasses) ``` ### HTML Inline html is fine, we can use the pipe syntax to write arbitrary text, in this case some html: ```jade html body |

Title

|

foo bar baz

``` Or we can use the trailing `.` to indicate to Jade that we only want text in this block, allowing us to omit the pipes: ```jade html body.

Title

foo bar baz

``` Both of these examples yield the same result: ```html

Title

foo bar baz

``` The same rule applies for anywhere you can have text in jade, raw html is fine: ```jade html body h1 User #{name} ``` ### Doctypes To add a doctype simply use `!!!`, or `doctype` followed by an optional value: ```jade !!! ``` or ```jade doctype ``` Will output the _html 5_ doctype, however: ```jade !!! transitional ``` Will output the _transitional_ doctype. Doctypes are case-insensitive, so the following are equivalent: ```jade doctype Basic doctype basic ``` it's also possible to simply pass a doctype literal: ```jade doctype html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML Basic 1.1//EN ``` yielding: ```html ``` Below are the doctypes defined by default, which can easily be extended: ```js var doctypes = exports.doctypes = { '5': '', 'default': '', 'xml': '', 'transitional': '', 'strict': '', 'frameset': '', '1.1': '', 'basic': '', 'mobile': '' }; ``` To alter the default simply change: ```js jade.doctypes.default = 'whatever you want'; ``` ## Filters Filters are prefixed with `:`, for example `:markdown` and pass the following block of text to an arbitrary function for processing. View the _features_ at the top of this document for available filters. ```jade body :markdown Woah! jade _and_ markdown, very **cool** we can even link to [stuff](http://google.com) ``` Renders: ```html

Woah! jade and markdown, very cool we can even link to stuff

``` ## Code Jade currently supports three classifications of executable code. The first is prefixed by `-`, and is not buffered: ```jade - var foo = 'bar'; ``` This can be used for conditionals, or iteration: ```jade - for (var key in obj) p= obj[key] ``` Due to Jade's buffering techniques the following is valid as well: ```jade - if (foo) ul li yay li foo li worked - else p oh no! didnt work ``` Hell, even verbose iteration: ```jade - if (items.length) ul - items.forEach(function(item){ li= item - }) ``` Anything you want! Next up we have _escaped_ buffered code, which is used to buffer a return value, which is prefixed by `=`: ```jade - var foo = 'bar' = foo h1= foo ``` Which outputs `bar

bar

`. Code buffered by `=` is escaped by default for security, however to output unescaped return values you may use `!=`: ```jade p!= aVarContainingMoreHTML ``` Jade also has designer-friendly variants, making the literal JavaScript more expressive and declarative. For example the following assignments are equivalent, and the expression is still regular javascript: ```jade - var foo = 'foo ' + 'bar' foo = 'foo ' + 'bar' ``` Likewise Jade has first-class `if`, `else if`, `else`, `until`, `while`, `unless` among others, however you must remember that the expressions are still regular javascript: ```jade if foo == 'bar' ul li yay li foo li worked else p oh no! didnt work ``` ## Iteration Along with vanilla JavaScript Jade also supports a subset of constructs that allow you to create more designer-friendly templates, one of these constructs is `each`, taking the form: ```jade each VAL[, KEY] in OBJ ``` An example iterating over an array: ```jade - var items = ["one", "two", "three"] each item in items li= item ``` outputs: ```html
  • one
  • two
  • three
    • ``` iterating an array with index: ```jade items = ["one", "two", "three"] each item, i in items li #{item}: #{i} ``` outputs: ```html
  • one: 0
  • two: 1
  • three: 2
    • ``` iterating an object's keys and values: ```jade obj = { foo: 'bar' } each val, key in obj li #{key}: #{val} ``` would output `
  • foo: bar
    • ` Internally Jade converts these statements to regular JavaScript loops such as `users.forEach(function(user){`, so lexical scope and nesting applies as it would with regular JavaScript: ```jade each user in users each role in user.roles li= role ``` You may also use `for` if you prefer: ```jade for user in users for role in user.roles li= role ```     ## Conditionals Jade conditionals are equivalent to those using the code (`-`) prefix, however allow you to ditch parenthesis to become more designer friendly, however keep in mind the expression given is _regular_ JavaScript: ```jade for user in users if user.role == 'admin' p #{user.name} is an admin else p= user.name ``` is equivalent to the following using vanilla JavaScript literals: ```jade for user in users - if (user.role == 'admin') p #{user.name} is an admin - else p= user.name ``` Jade also provides have `unless` which is equivalent to `if (!(expr))`: ```jade for user in users unless user.isAnonymous p | Click to view a(href='/users/' + user.id)= user.name ``` ## Template inheritance Jade supports template inheritance via the `block` and `extends` keywords. A block is simply a "block" of Jade that may be replaced within a child template, this process is recursive. To activate template inheritance in Express 2.x you must add: `app.set('view options', { layout: false });`. Jade blocks can provide default content if desired, however optional as shown below by `block scripts`, `block content`, and `block foot`. ```jade html head h1 My Site - #{title} block scripts script(src='/jquery.js') body block content block foot #footer p some footer content ``` Now to extend the layout, simply create a new file and use the `extends` directive as shown below, giving the path (with or without the .jade extension). You may now define one or more blocks that will override the parent block content, note that here the `foot` block is _not_ redefined and will output "some footer content". ```jade extends layout block scripts script(src='/jquery.js') script(src='/pets.js') block content h1= title each pet in pets include pet ``` It's also possible to override a block to provide additional blocks, as shown in the following example where `content` now exposes a `sidebar` and `primary` block for overriding, or the child template could override `content` all together. ```jade extends regular-layout block content .sidebar block sidebar p nothing .primary block primary p nothing ``` ## Block append / prepend Jade allows you to _replace_ (default), _prepend_, or _append_ blocks. Suppose for example you have default scripts in a "head" block that you wish to utilize on _every_ page, you might do this: ```jade html head block head script(src='/vendor/jquery.js') script(src='/vendor/caustic.js') body block content ``` Now suppose you have a page of your application for a JavaScript game, you want some game related scripts as well as these defaults, you can simply `append` the block: ```jade extends layout block append head script(src='/vendor/three.js') script(src='/game.js') ``` When using `block append` or `block prepend` the `block` is optional: ```jade extends layout append head script(src='/vendor/three.js') script(src='/game.js') ``` ## Includes Includes allow you to statically include chunks of Jade, or other content like css, or html which lives in separate files. The classical example is including a header and footer. Suppose we have the following directory structure: ./layout.jade ./includes/ ./head.jade ./foot.jade and the following _layout.jade_: ```jade html include includes/head body h1 My Site p Welcome to my super amazing site. include includes/foot ``` both includes _includes/head_ and _includes/foot_ are read relative to the `filename` option given to _layout.jade_, which should be an absolute path to this file, however Express does this for you. Include then parses these files, and injects the AST produced to render what you would expect: ```html My Site

    My Site

    Welcome to my super lame site.

    ``` As mentioned `include` can be used to include other content such as html or css. By providing an extension Jade will not assume that the file is Jade source and will include it as a literal: ```jade html body include content.html ``` Include directives may also accept a block, in which case the the given block will be appended to the _last_ block defined in the file. For example if `head.jade` contains: ```jade head script(src='/jquery.js') ``` We may append values by providing a block to `include head` as shown below, adding the two scripts. ```jade html include head script(src='/foo.js') script(src='/bar.js') body h1 test ``` You may also `yield` within an included template, allowing you to explicitly mark where the block given to `include` will be placed. Suppose for example you wish to prepend scripts rather than append, you might do the following: ```jade head yield script(src='/jquery.js') script(src='/jquery.ui.js') ``` Since included Jade is parsed and literally merges the AST, lexically scoped variables function as if the included Jade was written right in the same file. This means `include` may be used as sort of partial, for example suppose we have `user.jade` which utilizes a `user` variable. ```jade h1= user.name p= user.occupation ``` We could then simply `include user` while iterating users, and since the `user` variable is already defined within the loop the included template will have access to it. ```jade users = [{ name: 'Tobi', occupation: 'Ferret' }] each user in users .user include user ``` yielding: ```html

    Tobi

    Ferret

    ``` If we wanted to expose a different variable name as `user` since `user.jade` references that name, we could simply define a new variable as shown here with `user = person`: ```jade each person in users .user user = person include user ```     ## Mixins Mixins are converted to regular JavaScript functions in the compiled template that Jade constructs. Mixins may take arguments, though not required: ```jade mixin list ul li foo li bar li baz ``` Utilizing a mixin without args looks similar, just without a block: ```jade h2 Groceries mixin list ``` Mixins may take one or more arguments as well, the arguments are regular javascripts expressions, so for example the following: ```jade mixin pets(pets) ul.pets - each pet in pets li= pet mixin profile(user) .user h2= user.name mixin pets(user.pets) ``` Would yield something similar to the following html: ```html

    tj

    ```     ## Generated Output Suppose we have the following Jade: ```jade - var title = 'yay' h1.title #{title} p Just an example ``` When the `compileDebug` option is not explicitly `false`, Jade will compile the function instrumented with `__.lineno = n;`, which in the event of an exception is passed to `rethrow()` which constructs a useful message relative to the initial Jade input. ```js function anonymous(locals) { var __ = { lineno: 1, input: "- var title = 'yay'\nh1.title #{title}\np Just an example", filename: "testing/test.js" }; var rethrow = jade.rethrow; try { var attrs = jade.attrs, escape = jade.escape; var buf = []; with (locals || {}) { var interp; __.lineno = 1; var title = 'yay' __.lineno = 2; buf.push(''); buf.push('' + escape((interp = title) == null ? '' : interp) + ''); buf.push(''); __.lineno = 3; buf.push('

    '); buf.push('Just an example'); buf.push('

    '); } return buf.join(""); } catch (err) { rethrow(err, __.input, __.filename, __.lineno); } } ``` When the `compileDebug` option _is_ explicitly `false`, this instrumentation is stripped, which is very helpful for light-weight client-side templates. Combining Jade's options with the `./runtime.js` file in this repo allows you to toString() compiled templates and avoid running the entire Jade library on the client, increasing performance, and decreasing the amount of JavaScript required. ```js function anonymous(locals) { var attrs = jade.attrs, escape = jade.escape; var buf = []; with (locals || {}) { var interp; var title = 'yay' buf.push(''); buf.push('' + escape((interp = title) == null ? '' : interp) + ''); buf.push(''); buf.push('

    '); buf.push('Just an example'); buf.push('

    '); } return buf.join(""); } ```     ## Example Makefile Below is an example Makefile used to compile _pages/*.jade_ into _pages/*.html_ files by simply executing `make`. ```make JADE = $(shell find pages/*.jade) HTML = $(JADE:.jade=.html) all: $(HTML) %.html: %.jade jade < $< --path $< > $@ clean: rm -f $(HTML) .PHONY: clean ``` this can be combined with the `watch(1)` command to produce a watcher-like behaviour: ```bash $ watch make ``` ## jade(1) ``` Usage: jade [options] [dir|file ...] Options: -h, --help output usage information -V, --version output the version number -o, --obj javascript options object -O, --out output the compiled html to -p, --path filename used to resolve includes -P, --pretty compile pretty html output -c, --client compile for client-side runtime.js -D, --no-debug compile without debugging (smaller functions) Examples: # translate jade the templates dir $ jade templates # create {foo,bar}.html $ jade {foo,bar}.jade # jade over stdio $ jade < my.jade > my.html # jade over stdio $ echo "h1 Jade!" | jade # foo, bar dirs rendering to /tmp $ jade foo bar --out /tmp ``` ## Tutorials - cssdeck interactive [Jade syntax tutorial](http://cssdeck.com/labs/learning-the-jade-templating-engine-syntax) - cssdeck interactive [Jade logic tutorial](http://cssdeck.com/labs/jade-templating-tutorial-codecast-part-2) - in [Japanese](http://blog.craftgear.net/4f501e97c1347ec934000001/title/10%E5%88%86%E3%81%A7%E3%82%8F%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8Bjade%E3%83%86%E3%83%B3%E3%83%97%E3%83%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B8%E3%83%B3) ## License (The MIT License) Copyright (c) 2009-2010 TJ Holowaychuk <tj@vision-media.ca> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.