# Generic, non web based templating engine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [November 18, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-non-web-based-templating-engine/48318 "2005-11-18T20:53:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/michael.campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-non-web-based-templating-engine/48318/1 "2005-11-18T20:53:56Z")
Is there a generic templating engine for ruby, a la Freemarker for Java? What I’m looking for is something that can take a ruby “model” (object graph, hashes, lists, etc.), a template, merge the 2 and spit out the result. I’d like this _NOT_ specifically for Web usage; that is, it doesn’t take .rhtml, or any html necessarily, doesn’t need to be run as part of mod\_ruby inside apache, etc., and ideally would be pure ruby. I like the erb syntax, and would love to have the full power of ruby inside the template, if possible. Something like OGNL is for java… A quick glance at rubyforge and RAA didn’t yield much, but I’m probably missing something. Or, failing that, a reason I’m obviously overlooking as to why something like this isn’t necessary and what to do instead. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/michael.campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-non-web-based-templating-engine/48318/2 "2005-11-18T20:56:57Z")
On 11/18/05, Michael C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Is there a generic templating engine for ruby, a la Freemarker for > Java? What I’m looking for is something that can take a ruby “model” > (object graph, hashes, lists, etc.), a template, merge the 2 and spit > out the result. Look at the work in Ruwiki’s templating engine. It’s based on the RDoc templating engine. Both work well with web pages but are not restricted to web pages. The Ruwiki modifications to that engine are perhaps more appropriate to non-webpage items because I did some work to make sure that single-line replacements work very well. It should be extractable, but I haven’t taken the time to do so as a separate download. -austin ---
**Author:** ![michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/michael.campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-non-web-based-templating-engine/48318/3 "2005-11-18T20:59:58Z")
On Nov 18, 2005, at 1:52 PM, Michael C. wrote: > I like the erb syntax, and would love to have the full power of ruby > inside the template, if possible. ERb is a standard Ruby library and can be used for anything (not just HTML), so if that’s what you want, you can have it. 🙂 James Edward G. II ---
**Author:** ![michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/michael.campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-non-web-based-templating-engine/48318/4 "2005-11-18T22:48:40Z")
Michael C. wrote: > Is there a generic templating engine for ruby, a la Freemarker for > Java? What I’m looking for is something that can take a ruby “model” > (object graph, hashes, lists, etc.), a template, merge the 2 and spit > out the result. Perhaps PageTemplate: [http://rubyforge.org/projects/pagetemplate/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/pagetemplate/) mature; stricter separation of code and template in that it doesn’t involve embedding any ruby code in templates and doesn’t even allow any parameter passing to loop functions. good if that’s the sort of templating you want. alex ---
**Author:** ![michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/michael.campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-non-web-based-templating-engine/48318/5 "2005-11-18T23:03:49Z")
On Friday 18 November 2005 12:52 pm, Michael C. wrote: > inside the template, if possible. Something like OGNL is for java… > You can just use erb. It doesn’t have to be used for web things, if you > like > the syntax. There are a bunch of other plain old templating packages out there. Given what you describe, maybe xtemplate or amrita2 might interest you? Kwartz is interesting. I also use IOWA for generic content generation. On demand reports, CSV files for import into Excel, and customized email generation, primarily, but that’s probably not what you want. Kirk H. ---
**Author:** ![michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@michael.campbell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/michael.campbell)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generic-non-web-based-templating-engine/48318/6 "2005-11-19T17:22:41Z")
On 11/18/05, Michael C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I like the erb syntax, and would love to have the full power of ruby > inside the template, if possible. Something like OGNL is for java… If you like erb, why not use it? 😉 Here’s an example to get you started: require ‘erb’ def do\_erb(str, erb\_binding, trim\_mode = ‘%’) str.untaint erb = ERB.new(str, $SAFE, trim\_mode) erb.result(erb\_binding) end class Foo attr\_accessor :greeting end foo = Foo.new foo.greeting = “Hello” template = \<\ from simple erb template % 1.upto(10) do |i| item \<%= i %\> % end EOT puts do\_erb(template, foo.instance\_eval{binding}) — OUTPUT — Hello from simple erb template item 1 item 2 item 3 Regards, Sean