jsrender-rails

This gem adds jsrender (next generation of jQuery Templates) and a corresponding Sprockets engine to the asset pipeline for Rails >= 3.1 applications.

Add it to your Gemfile and run bundle or run gem install jsrender-rails.

jsrender tempaltes will be recognized by Sprockets with the .jsr extension. Place them anywhere in the Sprockets load path.

<!-- app/assets/javascripts/views/user.jsr -->
<div class="user">{{>name}}</div>

In your JavaScript manifest file, require jsrender followed by your folder containing all your templates/views. The templates are compiled and named with their Sprockets logical path:

<!-- app/assets/javascripts/application.js -->
//= require jsrender
//= require_tree ./views

$(body).append($.render["views/user"]({name:"Sebastian Pape"}));

If the path to all of your views/templates have a common prefix that you prefer is not included in the template's name, you can set this option in config/application.rb:

config.jsrender.prefix = "views"

That would change the previous example to this:

$(body).append($.render["user"]({name:"Sebastian Pape"}));

The prefix can also be a regular expression. For example, to use only the name of the file for the template name, regardless of directory structure:

config.jsrender.prefix = %r{([^/]*/)*}

Yes, due to the fact that you use the .jsr extension instead of the prior .tmpl one it should work in parallel.

If you like to use haml in your jsrender templates I highly recommend haml_assets.

jsrender was created by Boris Moore.

The idea to easily adding jQuery templates to the Rails Asset-Pipeline comes from jimmycuadra/jquery-tmpl-rails and was adopted here to work with jsrender.

The Sprockets engine was originally derived from the sprockets-jquery-tmpl gem. If you want a similar mechanism for use outside of Rails, take a look at this project.