readme.md

API

API Usage

Syntax

• Interpolation
  My name is {user.name}
• Conditionals
  {{{ if isTrue }}}is true{{{ end }}}
• Iteration
  {{{ each people }}}{../name} is {../age} years old.{{{ end }}}
• Helpers
  Average: {divide(total, count)}
• Operators
  Not Bob? {(name != "Bob")}

Paths

A path is a fundamental unit in Benchpress. Any description of where a certain value exists in the data is a path. For instance, in interpolation like Hello, {world}., world is a path to the global world property.

Numeric Indexing

Benchpress does not have numeric literals, or a special syntax for indexing into an array numerically. Instead, you place the number in the place of the property name. The equivalent of the JS expression x.text[123] is x.text.123 in benchpress expressions.

• {arr.3} - access element 3 of array arr
• {12} - access the top-level value stored in the property "12"
• {person.pets.0} - access the person's first pet

Note: Only integers are supported in this manner.

Special Keywords

The following special keywords can be used in place of a path:

• @true - boolean
  The boolean value true.
• @false - boolean
  The boolean value false.
• @root - any
  The object passed to parse. The top-level context object.
• @value - any
  The value of the current element in an iteration.
• @key - string | number
  The key of the current element in an iteration.
• @index - number
  The numerical index of the current element in an iteration. For an object, this differs from the key. For an array, this is normally equal to the key.
• @first - boolean
  Whether this is the first element in an iteration.
• @last - boolean
  Whether this is the last element in an iteration.

templates.js Compatibility

Paths behave in some unfortunately odd ways in Benchpress in order to maintain maximum backwards-compatibility with templates.js:

• ../ equals ./ at the start of the path. You must use ../../ or ./../ to go "up one level".
• abc.def can either mean the def property of the abc object or the def property of each element within the abc array or object. It behaves the second way if within an iteration block.
• There's a lot of magic that is done to make paths backwards-compatible with templates.js behavior, since it worked with incomplete paths. Essentially, the algorithm has to pattern match through the full path, looking for an overlap of the given path within it. The gritty details are in the implementation.