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Webgen::SourceHandler::Template

Summary

This source handler operates on paths that match one of the following path patterns (see the path pattern documentation for more information): **/*.template

Following is the default meta information set on any node created by this source handler:

blocks: 
  default: 
    pipeline: erb,tags,blocks,head

Description

The template handler processes the templates files. Templates, as the name already implies, normally specify the layout and the overall “picture” of a web page that is defined using a page file. These files are in Webgen Page Format (the format which is also used for page files).

The configuration option sourcehandler.template.default_template specifies the name of the default template which is used when no explicit template is set via the meta information template. webgen assumes that the default template is in the same directory as the page file. However, if it can not be found there, the parent directory is searched for it and so on. If a default template isn’t found in the root directory, no template is used at all. This means that when you create a default template in the root directory, it is used as template for all page files that have no explicit template set.

webgen also uses the concept of a template chain to support multiple templates for one page file. For example, assume that

  • the page file index.page has set the template meta information to special.template,
  • the template special.template has no template meta information set and
  • the page file other.page also has no template meta information set.

The template chain for index.page would look like this

default.template <-- special.template <-- index.page

whereas the template chain for other.page would look like this

default.template <-- index.page

The first case also means that the special.template is nested in the default.template. This makes it possible, for example, to create a general website layout and then to create a special image gallery layout which uses the general one.

To stop the template handler from further searching for a template, you explicitly need to set a null template for the page or template file:

template: ~

This is useful if you want to have a different default.template in a sub directory which should provide a different look-and-feel for this subtree as the default.template in the root of the website.

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