Nift - template

You can use any template language that can be converted to html, php, etc. from the command line or at load time in the browser. For template languages that you can convert to html at load time from the browser, just include the required javascript scripts etc. as normal in your website and you should have no issues using the template language in your content and template files used to build pages with.

Converting template languages post-build

The best way to use a template language you can convert to html from the command line with Nift is to:

set the output extension to the normal extension used for the template language either site-wide or for the individual pages you want to use the template language for;
use the template language in the content and template files used to build the pages;
add post-build scripts to convert the built pages from the template language to html (you could even remove the built pages after converting if you want, or just move them to a different directory for the final website, the former is easier with regards to using the @pathtofile(abs-path-to-file) function from Nift's template language etc.).

Note: each (post-build) script requires a system call from C++ to run, which are much slower than most other things in C++ (like reading from and writing to a file). Though lots of different page-specific post-build scripts have the benefit of multithreading, whereas an individual site-wide post-build script does not unless you code/program/script it in there yourself.

The benefits of converting the template language post-build include:

You can have definitions and other code in one file (eg. the template files) which are still 'in scope' with code in other files (eg. content files);
You can use Nift's template language in amongst the other template language(s) you're using anywhere you want, as that will be parsed before you parse the built page with another template engine;
You can reduce the number of C++ system calls made, which can reduce build times.

Converting template languages pre-build

Alternatively to converting entire built pages post-build, you can convert individual files with pre-build scripts. For example if you have Haml installed on your machine you can convert a haml file input.haml to an html file output.html using the system call haml input.haml output.haml.

Converting template languages mid-build

Similar to converting individual files with pre-build scripts, you can convert individual files mid-build using the @system(sys-call) function in Nift's template language. For example if you have Haml installed on your machine you can convert a haml file input.haml to html using the system call haml input.haml. Hence, to input the haml file input.haml converted to html in a content or template file for a Nift website simply use:

@system("haml input.haml")

Template Languages

Haml

A templating system that is designed to avoid writing inline code in a web document and make the HTML cleaner. Haml gives the flexibility to have some dynamic content in HTML.