Awesome
Slim
Slim is a template language whose goal is to reduce the view syntax to the essential parts without becoming cryptic. It started as an exercise to see how much could be removed from a standard html template (<, >, closing tags, etc...). As more people took an interest in Slim, the functionality grew and so did the flexibility of the syntax.
A short list of the features...
- Elegant syntax
- Short syntax without closing tags (Using indentation instead)
- HTML style mode with closing tags
- Configurable shortcut tags (
#
for<div id="...">
and.
for<div class="...">
in the default configuration)
- Safety
- Automatic HTML escaping by default
- Support for Rails'
html_safe?
- Highly configurable
- Extensible via the following plugins:
- Logic less mode similar to Mustache
- Includes
- Translator/I18n
- High performance
- Comparable speed to ERB/Erubis
- Streaming support in Rails
- Supported by all major frameworks (Rails, Sinatra, ...)
- Full Unicode support for tags and attributes
- Embedded engines like Markdown and Textile
Links
- Homepage: https://slim-template.github.io
- Source: https://github.com/slim-template/slim
- Bugs: https://github.com/slim-template/slim/issues
- API documentation:
- Latest Gem: https://rubydoc.info/gems/slim/frames
- GitHub main: https://rubydoc.info/github/slim-template/slim/main/frames
Introduction
What is Slim?
Slim is a fast, lightweight templating engine with support for Rails 5 and later. It has been heavily tested on all major ruby implementations. We use continuous integration (GitHub actions).
Slim's core syntax is guided by one thought: "What's the minimum required to make this work".
As more people have contributed to Slim, there have been syntax additions influenced from their use of Haml and Jade. The Slim team is open to these additions because we know beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Slim uses Temple for parsing/compilation and is also integrated into Tilt, so it can be used together with Sinatra or plain Rack.
The architecture of Temple is very flexible and allows the extension of the parsing and compilation process without monkey-patching. This is used by the logic less plugin and the translator plugin which provides I18n. In logic-less mode you can use Slim if you like the Slim syntax to build your HTML but don't want to write Ruby in your templates.
Why use Slim?
- Slim allows you to write very minimal templates which are easy to maintain and pretty much guarantees that you write well-formed HTML and XML
- The Slim syntax is aesthetic and makes it more fun to write templates. Since you can use Slim as a drop-in replacement in all the major frameworks it is easy to adopt.
- The Slim architecture is very flexible and allows you to write syntax extensions and plugins.
Yes, Slim is speedy! Slim was developed right from the start with performance in mind. Don't trust the numbers? That's as it should be. Please try the benchmark rake task yourself!
However in our opinion you should use Slim because of its features and syntax. We just ensure that Slim doesn't have a negative impact on the performance of your application.
How to start?
Install Slim as a gem:
gem install slim
Include Slim in your Gemfile with gem 'slim'
or require it with require 'slim'
. That's it! Now, just use the .slim extension and you're good to go.
Syntax example
Here's a quick example to demonstrate what a Slim template looks like:
doctype html
html
head
title Slim Examples
meta name="keywords" content="template language"
meta name="author" content=author
link rel="icon" type="image/png" href=file_path("favicon.png")
javascript:
alert('Slim supports embedded javascript!')
body
h1 Markup examples
#content
p This example shows you how a basic Slim file looks.
== yield
- if items.any?
table#items
- for item in items
tr
td.name = item.name
td.price = item.price
- else
p No items found. Please add some inventory.
Thank you!
div id="footer"
== render 'footer'
| Copyright © #{@year} #{@author}
Indentation matters, but the indentation depth can be chosen as you like. If you want to first indent 2 spaces, then 5 spaces, it's your choice. To nest markup you only need to indent by one space, the rest is gravy.
Line indicators
Verbatim text |
The pipe tells Slim to just copy the line. It essentially escapes any processing. Each following line that is indented greater than the pipe is copied over.
body
p
|
This is a test of the text block.
The parsed result of the above:
<body><p>This is a test of the text block.</p></body>
If the text starts on the same line, the left margin is set at the indent of the pipe + one space. Any additional spaces will be copied over.
body
p
| This line is on the left margin.
This line will have one space in front of it.
This line will have two spaces in front of it.
And so on...
You can also embed html in the text line
- articles.each do |a|
| <tr><td>#{a.name}</td><td>#{a.description}</td></tr>
Verbatim text with leading and/or trailing white space |<
|>
|<>
You can add white space around verbatim text in the same way as for =
output:
| This line will not have any extra white space.
| This line will have a leading space, but it is difficult to see.
|< This line will have a leading white space.
|> This line will have a trailing white space.
|<> This line will have both leading and trailing white space.
Verbatim text with trailing white space '
The single quote tells Slim to copy the line (similar to |
), but makes sure that a single trailing white space is appended.
Inline html <
You can write html tags directly in Slim which allows you to write your templates in a more html like style with closing tags or mix html and Slim style.
The leading <
works like an implicit |
:
<html>
head
title Example
<body>
- if articles.empty?
- else
table
- articles.each do |a|
<tr><td>#{a.name}</td><td>#{a.description}</td></tr>
</body>
</html>
Control code -
The dash denotes control code. Examples of control code are loops and conditionals. end
is forbidden behind -
. Blocks are defined only by indentation.
If your ruby code needs to use multiple lines, append a backslash \
at the end of the lines. If your line ends with comma ,
(e.g because of a method call) you don't need the additional backslash before the linebreak.
body
- if articles.empty?
| No inventory
Output =
The equals sign tells Slim it's a Ruby call that produces output to add to the buffer. If your ruby code needs to use multiple lines, append a backslash \
at the end of the lines. For example:
= javascript_include_tag \
"jquery",
"application"
If your line ends with comma ,
(e.g because of a method call) you don't need the additional backslash before the linebreak. For trailing or leading whitespace the modifiers >
and <
are supported.
- Output with trailing white space
=>
. Same as the single equals sign (=
), except that it adds a trailing white space. - Output with leading white space
=<
. Same as the single equals sign (=
), except that it adds a leading white space.
Output without HTML escaping ==
Same as the single equals sign (=
), but does not go through the escape_html
method. For trailing or leading whitespace the modifiers >
and <
are supported.
- Output without HTML escaping and trailing white space
==>
. Same as the double equals sign (==
), except that it adds a trailing white space. - Output without HTML escaping and leading white space
==<
. Same as the double equals sign (==
), except that it adds a leading white space.
Code comment /
Use the forward slash for code comments - anything after it won't get displayed in the final render. Use /
for code comments and /!
for html comments
body
p
/ This line won't get displayed.
Neither does this line.
/! This will get displayed as html comments.
The parsed result of the above:
<body><p><!--This will get displayed as html comments.--></p></body>
HTML comment /!
Use the forward slash immediately followed by an exclamation mark for html comments (<!-- ... -->
).
IE conditional comment /[...]
/[if IE]
p Get a better browser.
This renders as:
<!--[if IE]><p>Get a better browser.</p><![endif]-->
HTML tags
<!DOCTYPE> declaration
The doctype keyword can be used to generate the complex doctypes in a very simple manner.
XML VERSION
doctype xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
doctype xml ISO-8859-1
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
XHTML DOCTYPES
doctype html
<!DOCTYPE html>
doctype 5
<!DOCTYPE html>
doctype 1.1
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
doctype strict
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
doctype frameset
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-frameset.dtd">
doctype mobile
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//WAPFORUM//DTD XHTML Mobile 1.2//EN"
"http://www.openmobilealliance.org/tech/DTD/xhtml-mobile12.dtd">
doctype basic
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML Basic 1.1//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-basic/xhtml-basic11.dtd">
doctype transitional
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
HTML 4 DOCTYPES
doctype strict
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
doctype frameset
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">
doctype transitional
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
Closed tags (trailing /
)
You can close tags explicitly by appending a trailing /
.
img src="image.png"/
Note, that this is usually not necessary since the standard html tags (img, br, ...) are closed automatically.
Trailing and leading whitespace (<
, >
)
You can force Slim to add a trailing whitespace after a tag by adding a >
.
a> href='url1' Link1
a> href='url2' Link2
You can add a leading whitespace by adding <
.
a< href='url1' Link1
a< href='url2' Link2
You can also combine both.
a<> href='url1' Link1
Inline tags
Sometimes you may want to be a little more compact and inline the tags.
ul
li.first: a href="/a" A link
li: a href="/b" B link
For readability, don't forget you can wrap the attributes.
ul
li.first: a[href="/a"] A link
li: a[href="/b"] B link
Text content
Either start on the same line as the tag
body
h1 id="headline" Welcome to my site.
Or nest it. You must use a pipe or an apostrophe to escape processing
body
h1 id="headline"
| Welcome to my site.
Or enable and rely on smart text instead
body
h1 id="headline"
Welcome to my site.
Dynamic content (=
and ==
)
Can make the call on the same line
body
h1 id="headline" = page_headline
Or nest it.
body
h1 id="headline"
= page_headline
Attributes
You write attributes directly after the tag. For normal text attributes you must use double "
or single quotes '
(Quoted attributes).
a href="https://slim-template.github.io" title='Slim Homepage' Goto the Slim homepage
You can use text interpolation in the quoted attributes.
Attributes wrapper
If a delimiter makes the syntax more readable for you,
you can use the characters {...}
, (...)
, [...]
to wrap the attributes.
You can configure these symbols (See option :attr_list_delims
).
body
h1(id="logo") = page_logo
h2[id="tagline" class="small tagline"] = page_tagline
If you wrap the attributes, you can spread them across multiple lines:
h2[id="tagline"
class="small tagline"] = page_tagline
You may use spaces around the wrappers and assignments:
h1 id = "logo" = page_logo
h2 [ id = "tagline" ] = page_tagline
Quoted attributes
Example:
a href="https://slim-template.github.io" title='Slim Homepage' Goto the Slim homepage
You can use text interpolation in the quoted attributes:
a href="http://#{url}" Goto the #{url}
The attribute value will be escaped by default. Use == if you want to disable escaping in the attribute.
a href=="&"
You can break quoted attributes with backslash \
a data-title="help" data-content="extremely long help text that goes on\
and on and on and then starts over...."
Ruby attributes
Write the ruby code directly after the =
. If the code contains spaces you have to wrap
the code into parentheses (...)
. You can also directly write hashes {...}
and arrays [...]
.
body
table
- for user in users
td id="user_#{user.id}" class=user.role
a href=user_action(user, :edit) Edit #{user.name}
a href=(path_to_user user) = user.name
The attribute value will be escaped by default. Use == if you want to disable escaping in the attribute.
a href==action_path(:start)
You can also break ruby attributes with backslash \
or trailing ,
as described for control sections.
Boolean attributes
The attribute values true
, false
and nil
are interpreted
as booleans. If you use the attribute wrapper you can omit the attribute assignment.
input type="text" disabled="disabled"
input type="text" disabled=true
input(type="text" disabled)
input type="text"
input type="text" disabled=false
input type="text" disabled=nil
Attribute merging
You can configure attributes to be merged if multiple are given (See option :merge_attrs
). In the default configuration
this is done for class attributes with the white space as delimiter.
a.menu class="highlight" href="https://slim-template.github.io/" slim-template.github.io
This renders as:
<a class="menu highlight" href="https://slim-template.github.io/">slim-template.github.io</a>
You can also use an Array
as attribute value and the array elements will be merged using the delimiter.
a class=["menu","highlight"]
a class=:menu,:highlight
Splat attributes *
The splat shortcut allows you to turn a hash into attribute/value pairs.
.card*{'data-url'=>place_path(place), 'data-id'=>place.id} = place.name
This renders as:
<div class="card" data-id="1234" data-url="/place/1234">Slim's house</div>
You can also use methods or instance variables which return a hash as shown here:
.card *method_which_returns_hash = place.name
.card *@hash_instance_variable = place.name
The hash attributes which support attribute merging (see Slim option :merge_attrs
) can be given as an Array
.first *{class: [:second, :third]} Text
This renders as:
div class="first second third"
Splat attributes prefix may be configured via splat_prefix
option. Default value is '*'
Dynamic tags *
You can create completely dynamic tags using the splat attributes. Just create a method which returns a hash with the :tag key.
ruby:
def self.a_unless_current
@page_current ? {tag: 'span'} : {tag: 'a', href: 'https://slim-template.github.io/'}
end
- @page_current = true
*a_unless_current Link
- @page_current = false
*a_unless_current Link
This renders as:
<span>Link</span><a href="https://slim-template.github.io/">Link</a>
Shortcuts
Tag shortcuts
You can define custom tag shortcuts by setting the option :shortcut
. In Rails apps, you need to put this code for your shortcuts into an initializer like config/initializers/slim.rb
. In Sinatra, you simply add the same configuration anywhere below the line where you require 'slim'
.
Slim::Engine.set_options shortcut: {'c' => {tag: 'container'}, '#' => {attr: 'id'}, '.' => {attr: 'class'} }
We can use it in Slim code like this
c.content Text
which renders to
<container class="content">Text</container>
Attribute shortcuts
You can define custom shortcuts (Similar to #
for id and .
for class).
In this example we add &
to create a shortcut for the input elements with type attribute.
Slim::Engine.set_options shortcut: {'&' => {tag: 'input', attr: 'type'}, '#' => {attr: 'id'}, '.' => {attr: 'class'}}
We can use it in Slim code like this
&text name="user"
&password name="pw"
&submit
which renders to
<input type="text" name="user" />
<input type="password" name="pw" />
<input type="submit" />
In another example we add @
to create a shortcut for the role attribute.
Slim::Engine.set_options shortcut: {'@' => {attr: 'role'}, '#' => {attr: 'id'}, '.' => {attr: 'class'}}
We can use it in Slim code like this
.person@admin = person.name
which renders to
<div class="person" role="admin">Daniel</div>
You can also set multiple attributes with same value at once using one shortcut.
Slim::Engine.set_options shortcut: {'@' => {attr: %w(data-role role)}}
We can use it in Slim code like this
.person@admin = person.name
which renders to
<div class="person" role="admin" data-role="admin">Daniel</div>
You can also set additional fixed value attributes to a shortcut.
Slim::Engine.set_options shortcut: {'^' => {tag: 'script', attr: 'data-binding',
additional_attrs: { type: "text/javascript" }}}
Then
^products
== @products.to_json
which renders to
<script data-binding="products" type="text/javascript">
[{"name": "product1", "price": "$100"},
{"name": "product2", "price": "$200"}]
</script>
Lambda shortcuts
You can define custom shortcuts using lambdas.
In this example we add ~
to create a shortcut with a special processing (adding a prefix) for the class attribute.
Slim::Engine.set_options shortcut: {'~' => {attr: ->(v) {{class: "styled-#{v}"}}}}
We can use it in Slim code like this
h1~title Hello
~text~question.paragraph How are you?
which renders to
<h1 class="styled-title">Hello</h1>
<div class="styled-text styled-question paragraph">How are you?</div>
ID shortcut #
and class shortcut .
You can specify the id
and class
attributes in the following shortcut form
body
h1#headline
= page_headline
h2#tagline.small.tagline
= page_tagline
.content
= show_content
This is the same as
body
h1 id="headline"
= page_headline
h2 id="tagline" class="small tagline"
= page_tagline
div class="content"
= show_content
Helpers, capturing and includes
If you use Slim you might want to extend your template with some helpers. Assume that you have the following helper
module Helpers
def headline(&block)
if defined?(::Rails)
# In Rails we have to use capture!
"<h1>#{capture(&block)}</h1>"
else
# If we are using Slim without a framework (Plain Tilt),
# this works directly.
"<h1>#{yield}</h1>"
end
end
end
which is included in the scope that executes the Slim template code. The helper can then be used in the Slim template as follows
p
= headline do
' Hello
= user.name
The content in the do
block is then captured automatically and passed to the helper via yield
. As a syntactic
sugar you can omit the do
keyword and write only
p
= headline
' Hello
= user.name
Capturing to local variables
Using the Binding
you can capture to local variables as follows:
module Helpers
def capture_to_local(var, &block)
set_var = block.binding.eval("lambda {|x| #{var} = x }")
# In Rails we have to use capture!
# If we are using Slim without a framework (Plain Tilt),
# you can just yield to get the captured block.
set_var.call(defined?(::Rails) ? capture(&block) : yield)
end
end
The helper can then be used in the Slim template as follows
/ The captured_content variable must be known by the Binding beforehand.
= capture_to_local captured_content=:captured_content
p This will be captured in the variable captured_content
= captured_content
Another interesting use case is to use an enumerable and capture for each element. The helper could look like this
module Capture
def capture(var, enumerable = nil, &block)
value = enumerable ? enumerable.map(&block) : yield
block.binding.eval("lambda {|x| #{var} = x }").call(value)
nil
end
end
and it would be used as follows
- links = { 'https://slim-template.github.io' => 'The Slim Template Language' }
= capture link_list=:link_list, links do |url, text|
a href=url = text
Afterwards, link_list
contains the captured content.
Include helper
If you want includes which are processed at compile time, you can take a look at Include partials.
However you can also execute subtemplates at runtime (similar to Rails' #render
). You have to write your own include helper:
module Helpers
def include_slim(name, options = {}, &block)
Slim::Template.new("#{name}.slim", options).render(self, &block)
end
end
This helper can then be used as follows
nav = include_slim 'menu'
section = include_slim 'content'
However this helper doesn't do any caching. You should therefore implement a more intelligent version of the helper which
fits your purposes. You should also be aware that most frameworks already bring their own include helper, e.g. Rails has render
.
Text interpolation
Use standard Ruby interpolation. The text will be html escaped by default, but you can avoid escaping by using double braces.
body
h1 Welcome #{current_user.name} to the show.
| Unescaped #{{content}} is also possible.
To escape the interpolation (i.e. render as is)
body
h1 Welcome \#{current_user.name} to the show.
Embedded engines (Markdown, ...)
Thanks to Tilt, Slim has extensive support for embedding other template engines.
Examples:
coffee:
square = (x) -> x * x
markdown:
#Header
Hello from #{"Markdown!"}
Second Line!
p: markdown: Tag with **inline** markdown!
Supported engines:
Filter | Required gems | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
ruby: | none | Shortcut | Shortcut to embed ruby code |
javascript: | none | Shortcut | Shortcut to embed javascript code and wrap in script tag |
css: | none | Shortcut | Shortcut to embed css code and wrap in style tag |
sass: | sass-embedded or sassc or sass | Compile time | Embed sass code and wrap in style tag |
scss: | sass-embedded or sassc or sass | Compile time | Embed scss code and wrap in style tag |
less: | less | Compile time | Embed less css code and wrap in style tag |
coffee: | coffee-script | Compile time | Compile coffee script code and wrap in script tag |
markdown: | redcarpet/rdiscount/kramdown | Compile time + Interpolation | Compile markdown code and interpolate #{variables} in text |
textile: | redcloth | Compile time + Interpolation | Compile textile code and interpolate #{variables} in text |
rdoc: | rdoc | Compile time + Interpolation | Compile rdoc code and interpolate #{variables} in text |
The embedded engines can be configured in Slim by setting the options directly on the Slim::Embedded
filter. Example:
Slim::Embedded.options[:markdown] = {auto_ids: false}
You can also specify HTML attributes for the following embedded engines:
- Javascript
- CSS
- CoffeeScript
- LESS
- SASS
- SCSS
Example:
scss class="myClass":
$color: #f00;
body { color: $color; }
This will generate the following HTML:
<style class="myClass" type="text/css">body{color:red}</style>
Configuring Slim
Slim and the underlying Temple framework are highly configurable.
The way how you configure Slim depends a bit on the compilation mechanism (Rails or Tilt). It is always possible to set default options per Slim::Engine
class. This can be done in Rails' environment files. For instance, in config/environments/development.rb you probably want:
Default options
# Indent html for pretty debugging and do not sort attributes
Slim::Engine.set_options pretty: true, sort_attrs: false
You can also access the option hash directly:
Slim::Engine.options[:pretty] = true
Setting options at runtime
There are two ways to set options at runtime. For Tilt templates (Slim::Template
) you can set
the options when you instantiate the template:
Slim::Template.new('template.slim', optional_option_hash).render(scope)
The other possibility is to set the options per thread which is interesting mostly for Rails:
Slim::Engine.with_options(option_hash) do
# Any Slim engines which are created here use the option_hash
# For example in Rails:
render :page, layout: true
end
You have to be aware that the compiled engine code and the options are cached per template in Rails and you cannot change the option afterwards.
# First render call
Slim::Engine.with_options(pretty: true) do
render :page, layout: true
end
# Second render call
Slim::Engine.with_options(pretty: false) do
render :page, layout: true # :pretty is still true because it is cached
end
Available options
The following options are exposed by the Slim::Engine
and can be set with Slim::Engine.set_options
.
There are a lot of them but the good thing is, that Slim checks the configuration keys and reports an error if you try to use an invalid configuration key.
Type | Name | Default | Purpose |
---|---|---|---|
String | :file | nil | Name of parsed file, set automatically by Slim::Template |
Integer | :tabsize | 4 | Number of white spaces per tab (used by the parser) |
String | :encoding | "utf-8" | Set encoding of template |
String | :default_tag | "div" | Default tag to be used if tag name is omitted |
Hash | :shortcut | {'.' => {attr: 'class'}, '#' => {attr: 'id'}} | Attribute shortcuts |
Hash | :code_attr_delims | {'(' => ')', '[' => ']', '{' => '}'} | Attribute delimiters for Ruby code attributes |
Hash | :attr_list_delims | {'(' => ')', '[' => ']', '{' => '}'} | Attribute list delimiter |
Array<Symbol,String> | :enable_engines | nil <i>(All enabled)</i> | List of enabled embedded engines (whitelist) |
Array<Symbol,String> | :disable_engines | nil <i>(None disabled)</i> | List of disabled embedded engines (blacklist) |
Boolean | :disable_capture | false (true in Rails) | Disable capturing in blocks (blocks write to the default buffer |
Boolean | :disable_escape | false | Disable automatic escaping of strings |
Boolean | :use_html_safe | false (true in Rails) | Use String#html_safe? from ActiveSupport (Works together with :disable_escape) |
Symbol | :format | :xhtml | HTML output format (Possible formats :html, :xhtml, :xml) |
String | :attr_quote | '"' | Character to wrap attributes in html (can be ' or ") |
Hash | :merge_attrs | {'class' => ' '} | Joining character used if multiple html attributes are supplied (e.g. class="class1 class2") |
Array<String> | :hyphen_attrs | %w(data) | Attributes which will be hyphenated if a Hash is given (e.g. data={a_foo:1,b:2} will render as data-a_foo="1" data-b="2") |
Boolean | :hyphen_underscore_attrs | false | Attributes that have underscores in their names will be hyphenated (e.g. data={a_foo:1,b_bar:2} will render as data-a-foo="1" data-b-bar="2") |
Boolean | :sort_attrs | true | Sort attributes by name |
Symbol | :js_wrapper | nil | Wrap javascript by :comment, :cdata or :both. You can also :guess the wrapper based on :format. |
Boolean | :pretty | false | Pretty HTML indenting, only block level tags are indented <b>(This is slower!)</b> |
String | :indent | ' ' | Indentation string |
Boolean | :streaming | false (true in Rails, see below how to disable it!) | Enable output streaming, improves the perceived performance |
Class | :generator | Temple::Generators::StringBuffer/ RailsOutputBuffer | Temple code generator (default generator generates string buffer) |
String | :buffer | '_buf' ('@output_buffer' in Rails) | Variable used for buffer |
String | :splat_prefix | '*' | Prefix used for splat attributes |
There are more options which are supported by the Temple filters but which are not exposed and are not officially supported. You have to take a look at the Slim and Temple code for that.
Option priority and inheritance
For developers who know more about Slim and Temple architecture it is possible to override default options at different positions. Temple uses an inheritance mechanism to allow subclasses to override options of the superclass. The option priorities are as follows:
Slim::Template
options passed at engine instantiationSlim::Template.options
Slim::Engine.thread_options
,Slim::Engine.options
- Parser/Filter/Generator
thread_options
,options
(e.gSlim::Parser
,Slim::Compiler
)
It is also possible to set options for superclasses like Temple::Engine
. But this will affect all temple template engines then.
Slim::Engine < Temple::Engine
Slim::Compiler < Temple::Filter
Plugins
Slim currently provides plugins for logic less mode, includes and I18n. See the plugin documentation.
Framework support
Tilt
Slim uses Tilt to compile the generated code. If you want to use the Slim template directly, you can use the Tilt interface.
Tilt.new['template.slim'].render(scope)
Slim::Template.new('template.slim', optional_option_hash).render(scope)
Slim::Template.new(optional_option_hash) { source }.render(scope)
The optional option hash can have to options which were documented in the section above. The scope is the object in which the template code is executed.
Sinatra
require 'sinatra'
require 'slim'
get('/') { slim :index }
__END__
@@ index
doctype html
html
head
title Sinatra With Slim
body
h1 Slim Is Fun!
Rails
Rails generators are provided by slim-rails. slim-rails
is not necessary to use Slim in Rails though. Just install Slim and add it to your Gemfile with gem 'slim'
.
Then just use the .slim extension and you're good to go.
Streaming
HTTP streaming is enabled by default if you use a Rails version which supports it. However you have to be aware that streaming only improves the perceived performance. The rendering time in total will increase. If you want to disable it use:
Slim::RailsTemplate.set_options streaming: false
Angular2
Slim now supports Angular2 syntax. But you need to set some configuration options:
splat_prefix
option
This option tells parser what syntax to use for splat attributes.
Default value is asterisk: splat_prefix: '*'
Asterisk is also used in Angular2 for structural directives such as *ngIf
and others, so default configuration causes a conflict between slim and angular2 syntax.
There are two ways to resolve it:
- Set
splat_prefix
to any custom value, double asterisk, for example:splat_prefix: '**'
. Now structural directives should work as expected. Remember that now splat attributes should be written with new custom prefix before them. - Use alternative directive syntax without asterisk.
Attribute delimiters
Angular and slim both uses brackets in their syntax. So there are also two ways:
- Use alternative syntax for binding (
bind-...
and so on) - Limit attribute delimiters to curly braces only:
code_attr_delims: {
'{' => '}',
},
attr_list_delims: {
'{' => '}',
},
Now you can use something like this:
h1{ #var (bind1)="test" [bind2]="ok" [(bind3)]="works?" *ngIf="expr" *ngFor="expression" } {{it works}}
Will be compiled to:
<h1 #var="" (bind1)="test" [bind2]="ok" [(bind3)]="works?" *ngIf="expr" *ngFor="expression">
{{it works}}
</h1>
Tools
Slim Command 'slimrb'
The gem 'slim' comes with the small tool 'slimrb' to test Slim from the command line.
<pre> $ slimrb --help Usage: slimrb [options] -s, --stdin Read input from standard input instead of an input file --trace Show a full traceback on error -c, --compile Compile only but do not run -e, --erb Convert to ERB --rails Generate rails compatible code (Implies --compile) -r, --require library Load library or plugin with -r slim/plugin -p, --pretty Produce pretty html for debugging purposes -o, --option name=code Set slim option -l, --locals Hash|YAML|JSON Set local variables -h, --help Show this message -v, --version Print version </pre>Start 'slimrb', type your code and press Ctrl-d to send EOF. In Windows Command Prompt press Ctrl-z, Enter to send EOF. Example usage:
<pre> $ slimrb markdown: First paragraph. Second paragraph. * one * two * three //Enter Ctrl-d <p>First paragraph </p> <p>Second paragraph </p> <ul> <li>one</li> <li>two</li> <li>three</li> </ul> </pre>Syntax Highlighters
There are plugins for various text editors (including the most important ones - Vim, Emacs and Textmate):
- Vim
- Emacs
- Textmate / Sublime Text
- Espresso text editor
- Coda
- Atom
- VS Code (Official marketplace, Open VSX registry)
Template Converters (HAML, ERB, ...)
- Slim can be converted to ERB using
slimrb
orSlim::ERBConverter
which are both included in the Slim gem - Haml2Slim converter
- ERB2Slim, HTML2Slim converter
Testing
Benchmarks
Yes, Slim is one of the fastest Ruby template engines out there! In production mode Slim is nearly as fast as Erubis (which is the fastest template engine). But we would be happy if you chose Slim also for any other reason, we assure you performance will not be an obstacle.
For up-to-date benchmarks, please refer to our dedicated Template engine benchmarks repository.
Test suite and continuous integration
Slim provides an extensive test-suite based on minitest. You can run the tests with 'rake test' and the rails integration tests with 'rake test:rails'.
We are currently experimenting with human-readable literate tests which are written as markdown files: TESTS.md
Slim is working well on all major Ruby implementations:
- Ruby 2.5 and newer
- JRuby
Contributing
If you'd like to help improve Slim, clone the project with Git by running:
$ git clone git://github.com/slim-template/slim
Work your magic and then submit a pull request. We love pull requests!
Please remember to keep the compatibility with Ruby versions 2.5 and newer.
If you find the documentation lacking, help us out and update this README.md. If you don't have the time to work on Slim, but found something we should know about, please submit an issue.
License
Slim is released under the MIT license.
Authors
- Daniel Mendler (Lead developer)
- Andrew Stone
- Fred Wu
Donations and sponsoring
This project relies on sponsoring for its continued maintenance. If you want to support the project, please visit the GitHub sponsors page.
Premium sponsors:
Related projects
Template compilation framework:
Framework support:
Syntax highlighting:
Static code analysis:
Template Converters (HAML, ERB, ...):
Language ports/Similar languages:
- Skimpy (Python 3 template engine inspired by Slim)
- Sliq (Slim/Liquid integration)
- Slm (Slim port to Javascript)
- Coffee script plugin for Slim
- Clojure port of Slim
- Hamlet.rb (Similar template language)
- Plim (Python port of Slim)
- Skim (Slim for Javascript)
- Emblem.js (Javascript, similar to Slim)
- Hamlit (High performance Haml implementation, based on Temple like Slim)
- Faml (Faster Haml implementation, also using Temple like Slim)
- Haml (Older engine which inspired Slim)
- Pug (Similar engine for javascript)
- Sweet (Similar engine which also allows to write classes and functions)
- Amber (Similar engine for Go)
- Slang (Slim-inspired templating language for Crystal)