Template Syntax

Eta's syntax will be familiar if you've ever used EJS. You'll get the hang of it in no time!

Basic Syntax

The data you pass in is available in the it variable.

To output data, use the <%= opening tag.

Hi <%= it.name %>

By default, Eta will automatically XML-escape the data you output. To allow raw HTML, use the <%~ opening tag.

Hi <%~ it.contentContainingHTML %>

To evaluate JavaScript, use the <% opening tag.

<% let myVar = 3 %>

Comments are just like regular JavaScript multiline comments!

<% /* this is a comment */ %>

Partials

Partials are templates rendered inside other templates.

To render a partial, use the <%~ opening tag + the include() function.

<%~ include("./path-to-partial") %>
<% /* we can also pass in data that will be merged with `it` and passed to the partial */ %>
<%~ include("./path-to-partial", { option: true }) %>

To render an async partial, use includeAsync().

<%~ await includeAsync("./path-to-partial") %>

Name Resolution

If you're running Eta in Node.js or Deno, Eta will automatically try to resolve partials and layouts from the filesystem. Ex. <%~ include("/header.eta") %> will look for a file called header.eta in the views directory.

If you want to include a partial that doesn't exist on the filesystem (e.g. one defined programmatically), name it starting with @:

<%~ include("@header") %>

Whitespace Control

Opening delimiters can be followed with - or _, and closing delimiters can be prefixed with - or _.

_ at the beginning of a tag will trim all whitespace before it, and _ at the end of a tag will trim all whitespace after it.

- at the beginning of a tag will trim 1 newline before it, and - at the end of a tag will trim 1 newline after it.

Hi
<%- = it.myname %>
<% /* The newline after "Hi" will be stripped */ %>