Jade

The jade template engine for node.js

Synopsis

jade [-h|--help] [-v|--version] [-o|--obj STR]
     [-O|--out DIR] [-p|--path PATH] [-P|--pretty]
     [-c|--client] [-D|--no-debug]

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 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

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

Self-closing Tags

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"/>

Attributes

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

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)

Class attributes

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>"

Class literal

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>"

Id literal

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

Block expansion

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

Text

Arbitrary text may follow tags:

 p Welcome to my site

yields:

 <p>Welcome to my site</p>

Pipe text

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.

Text only tags

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;
  }

Template script tags

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!

Interpolation

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}

Inline HTML

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>

Code

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!

Assignment

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' }

Conditionals

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}

Iteration

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

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>

Mixins can even take attributes, just like a tag. When attributes are passed they become the implicit attributes argument. Individual attributes can be accessed just like normal object properties:

  mixin centered
    .centered(class=attributes.class)
      block

  +centered.bold Hello world

  +centered.red
    p This is my
    p Amazing article

yields:

   <div class="centered bold">Hello world</div>
   <div class="centered red">
     <p>This is my</p>
     <p>Amazing article</p>
   </div>

If you use attributes directly, all passed attributes get used:

  mixin link
    a.menu(attributes)
      block

  +link.highlight(href='#top') Top
  +link#sec1.plain(href='#section1') Section 1
  +link#sec2.plain(href='#section2') Section 2

yields:

   <a href="#top" class="highlight menu">Top</a>
   <a id="sec1" href="#section1" class="plain menu">Section 1</a>
   <a id="sec2" href="#section2" class="plain menu">Section 2</a>

If you pass arguments, they must directly follow the mixin:

  mixin list(arr)
    if block
      .title
        block
    ul(attributes)
      each item in arr
        li= item

  +list(['foo', 'bar', 'baz'])(id='myList', class='bold')

yields:

   <ul id="myList" class="bold">
     <li>foo</li>
     <li>bar</li>
     <li>baz</li>
   </ul>