Escape Double Braces In Mustache Template Templating A Template In Nodejs

Mustache Template is a powerful tool for creating dynamic templates in web applications. However, dealing with double braces can sometimes be tricky, especially when you need to escape them. In this guide, we'll explore how to escape double braces in a Mustache template while templating a template in Node.js.

When working with Mustache templates in Node.js, you may encounter scenarios where you need to include double curly braces (`{{}}`) in the template itself. To escape these double braces and prevent them from being interpreted as Mustache tags, you can use triple curly braces (`{{{}}}`) or the `{{` and `}}` tags separately.

To demonstrate this, let's create a simple example in which we'll be templating a template that contains double braces.

First, install the Mustache package in your Node.js project by running the following command:

npm install mustache

Next, let's create a basic template file named `mainTemplate.mustache`:

<h1>Hello, {{{{name}}}}!</h1>

In this template, we want to display the literal text "{{name}}" without it being processed as a Mustache tag.

Now, let's create another template file named `wrapperTemplate.mustache` that will use the `mainTemplate.mustache`:

<div>
    {{&gt; mainTemplate}}
</div>

In the `wrapperTemplate.mustache` file, we include the `mainTemplate.mustache` using the partial tag `{{> mainTemplate}}`.

To render the final output with the escaped double braces, we can use the Mustache library in our Node.js code:

const mustache = require('mustache');
const fs = require('fs');

const wrapperTemplate = fs.readFileSync('wrapperTemplate.mustache', 'utf8');
const mainTemplate = fs.readFileSync('mainTemplate.mustache', 'utf8');

const output = mustache.render(wrapperTemplate, {}, { mainTemplate });

console.log(output);

In this Node.js script, we first read the contents of the `wrapperTemplate.mustache` and `mainTemplate.mustache` files. We then render the `wrapperTemplate` using Mustache, passing an empty data object and including the `mainTemplate` as a partial.

When you run the above script, the output should be:

<div>
    <h1>Hello, {{name}}!</h1>
</div>

As you can see, the double braces in the `mainTemplate.mustache` were successfully escaped and displayed as raw text in the final output.

Escaping double braces in a Mustache template while templating a template in Node.js can help you handle complex scenarios where literal curly braces are needed within your templates without interfering with the Mustache rendering process. This technique allows for greater flexibility in creating dynamic and user-friendly templates for your web applications.