The jade template engine for node.js
jade [-h|--help] [-v|--version] [-o|--obj STR]
[-O|--out DIR] [-p|--path PATH] [-P|--pretty]
[-c|--client] [-D|--no-debug]
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 s
$ echo "h1 Jade!" | jade
foo, bar dirs rendering to /tmp
$ jade foo bar --out /tmp
compile client-side templates without debugging instrumentation, making the output javascript very light-weight. This requires runtime.js in your projects.
$ jade --client --no-debug < my.jade
Tags are simply nested via whitespace, closing tags defined for you. These indents are called "blocks".
ul
li
a Foo
li
a Bar
You may have several tags in one "block":
ul
li
a Foo
a Bar
a Baz
Some tags are flagged as self-closing by default, such
as meta, link, and so on. To explicitly self-close
a tag simply append the / character:
foo/
foo(bar='baz')/
Would yield:
<foo/>
<foo bar="baz"/>
Tag attributes look similar to HTML, however the values are regular JavaScript, here are some examples:
a(href='google.com') Google
a(class='button', href='google.com') Google
As mentioned the attribute values are just JavaScript, this means ternary operations and other JavaScript expressions work just fine:
body(class=user.authenticated ? 'authenticated' : 'anonymous')
a(href=user.website || 'http://google.com')
Multiple lines work too:
input(type='checkbox',
name='agreement',
checked)
Multiple lines without the comma work fine:
input(type='checkbox'
name='agreement'
checked)
Funky whitespace? fine:
input(
type='checkbox'
name='agreement'
checked)
Boolean attributes are mirrored by Jade, and accept bools, aka true or false. When no value is specified true is assumed. For example:
input(type="checkbox", checked)
// => "<input type="checkbox" checked="checked" />"
For example if the checkbox was for an agreement, perhaps user.agreed
was true the following would also output 'checked="checked"':
input(type="checkbox", checked=user.agreed)
The class attribute accepts an array of classes, this can be handy when generated from a javascript function etc:
classes = ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
a(class=classes)
// => "<a class="foo bar baz"></a>"
Classes may be defined using a ".CLASSNAME" syntax:
.button
// => "<div class="button"></div>"
Or chained:
.large.button
// => "<div class="large button"></div>"
The previous defaulted to divs, however you may also specify the tag type:
h1.title My Title
// => "<h1 class="title">My Title</h1>"
Much like the class literal there's an id literal:
#user-1
// => "<div id="user-1"></div>"
Again we may specify the tag as well:
ul#menu
li: a(href='/home') Home
li: a(href='/store') Store
li: a(href='/contact') Contact
Finally all of these may be used in any combination, the following are all valid tags:
a.button#contact(style: 'color: red') Contact
a.button(style: 'color: red')#contact Contact
a(style: 'color: red').button#contact Contact
Jade supports the concept of "block expansion", in which using a trailing ":" after a tag will inject a block:
ul
li: a Foo
li: a Bar
li: a Baz
Arbitrary text may follow tags:
p Welcome to my site
yields:
<p>Welcome to my site</p>
Another form of text is "pipe" text. Pipes act as the text margin for large bodies of text.
p
| This is a large
| body of text for
| this tag.
|
| Nothing too
| exciting.
yields:
<p>This is a large
body of text for
this tag.
Nothing too
exciting.
</p>
Using pipes we can also specify regular Jade tags within the text:
p
| Click to visit
a(href='http://google.com') Google
| if you want.
As an alternative to pipe text you may add a trailing "." to indicate that the block contains nothing but plain-text, no tags:
p.
This is a large
body of text for
this tag.
Nothing too
exciting.
Some tags are text-only by default, for example script, textarea, and style tags do not contain nested HTML so Jade implies the trailing ".":
script
if (foo) {
bar();
}
style
body {
padding: 50px;
font: 14px Helvetica;
}
Sometimes it's useful to define HTML in script tags using Jade, typically for client-side templates.
To do this simply give the script tag an arbitrary type attribute such as text/x-template:
script(type='text/template')
h1 Look!
p Jade still works in here!
Both plain-text and piped-text support interpolation, which comes in two forms, escapes and non-escaped. The following will output the user.name in the paragraph but HTML within it will be escaped to prevent XSS attacks:
p Welcome #{user.name}
The following syntax is identical however it will not escape HTML, and should only be used with strings that you trust:
p Welcome !{user.name}
Sometimes constructing small inline snippets of HTML in Jade can be annoying, luckily we can add plain HTML as well:
p Welcome <em>#{user.name}</em>
To buffer output with Jade simply use = at the beginning of a line or after a tag. This method escapes any HTML present in the string.
p= user.description
To buffer output unescaped use the != variant, but again be careful of XSS.
p!= user.description
The final way to mess with JavaScript code in Jade is the unbuffered -, which can be used for conditionals, defining variables etc:
- var user = { description: 'foo bar baz' }
#user
- if (user.description) {
h2 Description
p.description= user.description
- }
When compiled blocks are wrapped in anonymous functions, so the following is also valid, without braces:
- var user = { description: 'foo bar baz' }
#user
- if (user.description)
h2 Description
p.description= user.description
If you really want you could even use .forEach() and others:
- users.forEach(function(user){
.user
h2= user.name
p User #{user.name} is #{user.age} years old
- })
Taking this further Jade provides some syntax for conditionals, iteration, switch statements etc. Let's look at those next!
Jade's first-class assignment is simple, simply use the = operator and Jade will var it for you. The following are equivalent:
- var user = { name: 'tobi' }
user = { name: 'tobi' }
Jade's first-class conditional syntax allows for optional parenthesis, and you may now omit the leading - otherwise it's identical, still just regular javascript:
user = { description: 'foo bar baz' }
#user
if user.description
h2 Description
p.description= user.description
Jade provides the negated version, unless as well, the following are equivalent:
- if (!(user.isAnonymous))
p You're logged in as #{user.name}
unless user.isAnonymous
p You're logged in as #{user.name}
JavaScript's for loops don't look very declarative, so Jade also provides its own for loop construct, aliased as each:
for user in users
.user
h2= user.name
p user #{user.name} is #{user.age} year old
As mentioned each is identical:
each user in users
.user
h2= user.name
If necessary the index is available as well:
for user, i in users
.user(class='user-#{i}')
h2= user.name
Remember, it's just JavaScript:
ul#letters
for letter in ['a', 'b', 'c']
li= letter
Mixins provide a way to define jade "functions" which "mix in" their contents when called. This is useful for abstracting out large fragments of Jade.
The simplest possible mixin which accepts no arguments might look like this:
mixin hello
p Hello
You use a mixin by placing + before the name:
+hello
For something a little more dynamic, mixins can take arguments, the mixin itself is converted to a javascript function internally:
mixin hello(user)
p Hello #{user}
+hello('Tobi')
Yields:
<p>Hello Tobi</p>
Mixins may optionally take blocks, when a block is passed
its contents becomes the implicit block argument. For
example here is a mixin passed a block, and also invoked
without passing a block:
mixin article(title)
.article
.article-wrapper
h1= title
if block
block
else
p No content provided
+article('Hello world')
+article('Hello world')
p This is my
p Amazing article
yields:
<div class="article">
<div class="article-wrapper">
<h1>Hello world</h1>
<p>No content provided</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="article">
<div class="article-wrapper">
<h1>Hello world</h1>
<p>This is my</p>
<p>Amazing article</p>
</div>
</div>