WordPress Handlebars Engine

Renders Handlebars/Moustache templates within your WordPress Theme/Plugin. Handlebars rendering is powered by LightnCandy. Tested with WordPress 5.2.3

Installation

You can install this (must-use) plugin two ways

Via Composer

If you load your dependenies via Composer you can load this plugin with

$ php composer require iantsch/wp-hbs-engine

Via Download

Download/fork this repository and copy the plugin-folder into wp-content/plugins/. If you visit your Plugin section in the wp-admin area, activate it and you are good to go.

Troubleshoots

You need to load the zordius/lightncandy dependency via composer. Install composer and run $ composer install in the wp-content/plugins/wp-hbs-engine folder.

The plugin needs a folder with write permissions for caching the handlebar files. It tries to create the folder wp-content/plugins/wp-hbs-engine/cache.

The plugin will try to load partials from the default folder src/templates/partials within your current theme. If the folder does not exist please add it (or use the filter hook to adapt).

Usage

Setup and modify the render engine to your needs in your functions.php or your plugin

add_filter('MBT/Engine/Handlebars/Helpers', function($helpers) {
  $helpers['__'] = function($string) {
    return __($string, 'mbt');
  };
  $helpers['permalink'] = 'get_permalink';
  $helpers['content'] = function() {
    return apply_filters('the_content', get_the_content());
  };
  return $helpers;
});

In your theme call it like a WordPress function.

global $post;
while (have_posts()){
  the_post();
  $data = (array) $post;
  the_hbs_template('article', $data);
}

In your article.hbs it is handlebarsjs.com syntax

<h2>{{this.post_title}}</h2>
<div>{{{content}}}</div>
<a href="{{permalink}}">{{__ 'Click'}}</a>

API

get_hbs_template

Parameter	Type	Description
$template	string	template name
$data	string	associative array with all the needed data for the template
$templateDir	string | boolean	absolutee path to template entry directory, defaults to /src/templates/ in current theme
$cacheDir	string | boolean	absolute path to caching directory, defaults to /cache/ in plugins folder
Returns: $html - the rendered HTML output

the_hbs_template

Parameter	Type	Description
$template	string	template name
$data	string	associative array with all the needed data for the template
$templateDir	string | boolean	absolutee path to template entry directory, defaults to /src/templates/ in current theme
$cacheDir	string | boolean	absolute path to caching directory, defaults to /cache/ in plugins folder
echoes the rendered HTML output

Hooks

There are several hooks to modify and adapt the render engine

Filters

MBT/Engine/Handlebars/Extension

Parameter	Type	Description
$extension	string	file extension, default: hbs
Returns: $extension - file extension of your handlebar templates

MBT/Engine/Handlebars/Helpers

Parameter	Type	Description
$helpers	array	associative array with callback functions for the implemented helpers
$this	object	Current instance of Handlebars engine
Returns: $helpers - array of handlebars helper

MBT/Engine/Handlebars/Flags

Parameter	Type	Description
$flags	int	bitwise flags used by LightnCandy
$this	object	Current instance of Handlebars engine
Returns: $flags - LightnCandy Flags

MBT/Engine/Handlebars/Partials

Parameter	Type	Description
$partials	array	associative array with the relative path to the partials
$this	object	Current instance of Handlebars engine
Returns: $partials - array of available partials

MBT/Engine/Handlebars/DefaultData

Parameter	Type	Description
$defaultData	array	fallback data for the template
$template	string	template name
Returns: $defaultData - fallback data for the template

MBT/Engine/Handlebars/Data

Parameter	Type	Description
$data	array	associative array with all the needed data for the template
$template	string	template name
Returns: $data - the data for the template

MBT/Engine/Handlebars/Html

Parameter	Type	Description
$html	string	rendered HTML output (with data)
$template	string	template name
$data	array	data used to render output
Returns: $html - the rendered HTML output

Actions

MBT/Engine/Handlebars/Init

Parameter	Type	Description
$this	object	Current instance of Handlebars engine

Credits

@iantsch - web developer behind this and other projects.