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What is Handlebars?

Handlebars is a simple templating language.

A template is an HTML document that contains embedded Handlebars expressions.

Data is passed into the template to generate the final HTML. This process is called "Applying data to a template". It transforms the data into an HTML document.

The original implementation of Handlebars is in JavaScript. Data will be passed as a JavaScript object. In priint cloud we use a Java implementation of Handlebars instead. Data will be passed as Java objects that have been deserialized from JSON.

Templates look like regular text with embedded Handlebars expressions.

Example Template:

<p>{{yourName}}</p>

Expressions are enclosed in double curly braces. With expressions, you can:

  • output values from the data source
  • execute a helper function to do all fancy stuff

Example Helpers:

<p>{{#if product.available}}
    Buy me.
{{else}}
    Sorry. We are out of stock.
{{/if}}</p>
<p>{{dateTimeFormat 'now' 'isoLocalDate'}}</p>

In priint cloud we provide all basic helpers from the original Handlebars.js. In addition to this, we provide a comprehensive library of additional helpers, all implemented in Java. And in edge cases you can also implement our own custom helpers in JavaScript.

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