Status

HTMLBars is a layer built on top of the Handlebars template compiler.

Goals

The goal of HTMLBars is to have a compiler for Handlebars that builds a DOM rather than a String.

This means that helpers can have special behavior based on their context (they know if they are inside an <a> tag, inside an attribute, etc.)

Ultimately, the goal is to have a good data binding setup for Handlebars that can work directly against DOM nodes and doesn't need special tags in the String for the data binding code to work (a major limitation in Ember).

There are also many performance gains in HTMLBars' approach to building DOM vs the HTML-unaware string building approach of Handlebars.

Usage

TODO: much change. This section will be updated shortly.

Until then, check out ARCHITECTURE.md for info on how HTMLBars is structured and its approach to efficiently building / emitting DOM.

Building HTMLBars

1. Ensure that Node.js is installed.
2. Run npm install to ensure the required dependencies are installed.
3. Run npm run-script build to build HTMLBars. The builds will be placed in the dist/ directory.

How to Run Tests

Via testem

Testem is a tool for running tests against multiple launchers. For instance, Chrome and PhantomJS.

1. Install Testem: npm install -g testem
2. Run testem: testem or run Testem with specific browers: testem -l Safari,Firefox

Testem is a CI tool, so it will run tests as you change files.

On the console with PhantomJS

1. Run npm test.

In a browser

1. Run npm start.
2. Visit http://localhost:4200/test.