# MasterView rails-optimized (x)html friendly template engine
**URL:** \
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 21, 2007, 6:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/masterview-rails-optimized-x-html-friendly-template-engine/86356 "2007-02-21T18:27:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@jbell38](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jbell38)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2007, 6:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/masterview-rails-optimized-x-html-friendly-template-engine/86356/1 "2007-02-21T18:27:20Z")
MasterView is a rails-optimized (x)html friendly template engine plugin
that
provides another option to the existing rails view templates (rhtml and
rxml). The main idea is to provide a template engine that would provide
all
the power of layouts, partials, and rails helpers but still be
editable/styleable in a WYSIWYG editor. It was also a major goal that
the
syntax of these attribute directives be very similar to rails helpers so
that one could intuitively start using MasterView with little learning
curve
other than knowing rails. MasterView was inspired by Amrita, Kwartz,
Tapestry, Zope/PHP TAL, Liquid, and Web Objects but designed with a
fresh
approach and specifically targetted for rails users.
Releae 0.3.2 is primarily a maintenance release to fix a minor
incompatibility with Rails 1.2.2 which was causing a blank screen on a
view
compile error rather than the normal debug output. Also there was a
defect
in the parameter parsing when using multiple parameters that was
corrected.
Finally the authorization mechanism for accessing the MasterView admin
pages
was made customizable by allowing a user configurable module to be used.
Tested with Rails 1.2.2
Release 0.3.1 was a maintenance release addressing an issue with ruby
1.8.5(wrong number of arguments 1 for 2 during scaffold generation),
fixing a
problem with the deprecated/directive\_base used for custom directives,
updating a few out of date docs, and accomodating a change to the API of
the
Rails 1.2 generator.
Release 0.3.0 was a major release for MasterView with an emphasis on
refactoring and simplifying the API for building directives. A DSL
syntax
was chosen to greatly simplify the creation of directives to both help
the
core team with directive development as to also enable developers to
create
their own custom directives easily. MasterView has been constructed to
allow
directives to be shared amongst the community and this refactoring will
enable custom development. To further enhance sharing and prevent
collisions, this release introduces custom namespaces to the directives
allowing users to create their own namespaces to prevent conflict.
Namespaces as well as many other metadata about directives can now be
configured at both the app-level and installation-level providing
flexibility.
Video
A short video which demos the basic operation is available at
[demo\_short](http://masterview.org/videos/demo_short.html)[http://masterview.org/videos/masterview\_quick\_start.html](http://masterview.org/videos/masterview_quick_start.html)
Screenshots and illustrations
[http://masterview.org/media\_list.html](http://masterview.org/media_list.html)
MasterView is released under MIT open source licensing.
Main site: [http://masterview.org/](http://masterview.org/)
Rubyforge Project site: [http://rubyforge.org/projects/masterview](http://rubyforge.org/projects/masterview)
Goals
- Create/extend a template engine for rails that would be XHTML
friendly and thus could be edited/styled with a WYSIWYG HTML editor
even
late in development without breaking template.
- Keep it simple. DRY. No extra config files, simple syntax with ruby
flavor.
- Design it specifically for ruby and rails. Use the full power and
not be limited in its capabilities over what can be done with ERb
(rhtml)
- Work nicely with layouts, partials, and rails html helpers.
- Reduce complexity, work with existing rails code, no extra view
logic or hashes than what is used by ERb (rhtml). Scaffold generate
initial
templates or work from existing html prototype. Make scaffolds nicely
styled
and easily useable for production with minor changes.
- Reduce the numbers of files, simplifying editing. Define partials
and layouts naturallyl right in the template, no need to go to
another file.
- Preview in browser without running an app. Allow for dummy data in
the template so that the page can be viewed and styled independently
of the
application.
- Performance equal to ERb (rhtml)
Release Notes:
== Recent changes (Release 0.3.2 - Maintenance release plus custom admin
auth)
This release addresses a compatibility problem with Rails 1.2 where a
view
syntax error would not display the normal debug output but instead
displayed
only a blank screen. Also fixed a parsing problem with multiple
parameters
in some directives. Added the ability to use custom mixin for
authorization
to MasterView admin screens. Changed the MasterView generator to use
request, flash, and params rather than deprecated @request, @flash, and
@params. Tested with Rails 1.2.2
== Recent changes (Release 0.3.1 - Maintenance release
This release addresses an issue with ruby 1.8.5, fixes a problem with
the
deprecated/directive\_base used for custom directives, updates a few out
of
date docs, and accomodates a change to the API of the Rails 1.2
generator
== Recent changes (Release 0.3.0 - Major update - refactoring of
directive
API (for developing directives)
The directive API for creating directives has been refactored and
simplified. This will enable directives to be developed more easily by
both
core developers and MasterView users. The end goal is to make it
extremely
simple for anyone to create their own custom directives and to share
those
with the community, and thus the project can live and grow into many
specialty areas. The directive API refactoring is one more step towards
those goals.
The old directive\_base.rb which provided the API for directives has been
deprecated and moved to deprecated/directive\_base.rb,
MasterViewdevelopers
which have developed custom directives should upgrade those directives
to
the new API as soon as possible. During the transition period one can
use
the original API by requiring the deprecated/directive\_base.rb file and
changing their directive to inherit from DirectiveBaseOld rather than
DirectiveBase.
== Recent changes (Release 0.2.5)
Fix AdminPage compatibility with Rails 1.1.5+ which uses safe\_load\_paths
to
find controllers
Fix rake mv:view\_rhtml RHTML=foo/\_bar.rhtml was not able to find
partials
Visit the online documentation page at [http://masterview.org/](http://masterview.org/) for
screenshots, illustrations, complete installation and usage information.
We would love to hear your feedback and ideas around this project! Visit
the
rubyforge project [http://rubyforge.org/projects/masterview](http://rubyforge.org/projects/masterview) to join the
users mailing list or to add yourself to the announce list to receive
future
announcements. Check out the
video[http://masterview.org/videos/demo\_short.html](http://masterview.org/videos/demo_short.html)to see
MasterView in action!
Thanks for your time!!
MasterView Development Team
Jeff B. and Deb Lewis