` and `.` for `

` in the default configuration) * Safety * Automatic HTML escaping by default * Support for Rails' `html_safe?` * Highly configurable and extendable via plugins * Logic less mode similar to Mustache, realized as plugin * Translator/I18n, realized as plugin * High performance * Comparable speed to ERB/Erubis * Streaming support in Rails * Supported by all major frameworks (Rails, Sinatra, ...) * Full Unicode support for tags and attributes on Ruby 1.9 * Embedded engines like Markdown and Textile ## Upgrade to version 2.0 __NOTE:__ Slim 2.0 is not yet released, but you can try the preview versions. If you are already using Slim 1.3 or 1.2 and want to upgrade to the newest version 2.0, you should at first upgrade to Slim 1.3.7 which will emit warnings for deprecated features. This way you can easily see if your application is already Slim 2.0 compliant! Slim 2.0 removes deprecated features from the 1.3 series and cleans up some minor inconsistencies in the syntax (Attribute wrapper and quoted attribute escaping). Of course it also includes new features and bugfixes. See the CHANGES for details. In general don't be afraid of upgrading! We try to be backward compatible and follow [semantic versions](http://semver.org/) as good as possible. ## Introduction ### What is Slim? Slim is a fast, lightweight templating engine with support for __Rails 3 and 4__. It has been heavily tested on all major ruby implementations. We use continous integration (travis-ci). Slim's core syntax is guided by one thought: "What's the minimum required to make this work". As more people have contributed to Slim, there have been syntax additions influenced from their use of [Haml](https://github.com/haml/haml) and [Jade](https://github.com/visionmedia/jade). The Slim team is open to these additions because we know beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Slim uses [Temple](https://github.com/judofyr/temple) for parsing/compilation and is also integrated into [Tilt](https://github.com/rtomayko/tilt), so it can be used together with [Sinatra](https://github.com/sinatra/sinatra) or plain [Rack](https://github.com/rack/rack). The architecture of Temple is very flexible and allows the extension of the parsing and compilation process without monkey-patching. This is used by the logic less plugin and the translator plugin which provides I18n. ### Why use Slim? Within the Rails community, _Erb_ and _Haml_ are without doubt the two most popular templating engines. However, _Erb_'s syntax is cumbersome and _Haml_'s syntax can be quite cryptic to the uninitiated. There is also some development in logic-less engines (e.g. [Mustache](https://github.com/defunkt/mustache) which requires you to write standard HTML). You can also use Slim in logic-less mode if you like the Slim syntax to build your HTML but don't want to write Ruby in your templates. Slim was born to bring a minimalist syntax approach with speed. If people chose not to use Slim, it would not be because of speed. ___Yes, Slim is speedy!___ Benchmarks are done for every commit at . Don't trust the numbers? That's as it should be. Please try the benchmark rake task yourself! ### How to start? Install Slim as a gem: gem install slim Include Slim in your Gemfile with `gem 'slim'` or require it with `require 'slim'`. That's it! Now, just use the .slim extension and you're good to go. ### Syntax example Here's a quick example to demonstrate what a Slim template looks like: doctype html html head title Slim Examples meta name="keywords" content="template language" meta name="author" content=author link rel="icon" type="image/png" href=file_path("favicon.png") javascript: alert('Slim supports embedded javascript!') body h1 Markup examples #content p This example shows you how a basic Slim file looks like. = yield - if items.any? table#items - for item in items do tr td.name = item.name td.price = item.price - else p No items found Please add some inventory. Thank you! div id="footer" = render 'footer' | Copyright © #{@year} #{@author} Indentation matters, but the indentation depth can be chosen as you like. If you want to first indent 2 spaces, then 5 spaces, it's your choice. To nest markup you only need to indent by one space, the rest is gravy. ## Line indicators ### Text `|` The pipe tells Slim to just copy the line. It essentially escapes any processing. Each following line that is indented greater than the pipe is copied over. body p | This is a test of the text block. The parsed result of the above:

This is a test of the text block.

The left margin is set at the indent of the pipe + one space. Any additional spaces will be copied over. body p | This line is on the left margin. This line will have one space in front of it. This line will have two spaces in front of it. And so on... You can also embed html in the text line - articles.each do |a| | #{a.name}#{a.description} ### Text with trailing white space `'` The single quote tells Slim to copy the line (similar to `|`), but makes sure that a single trailing white space is appended. ### Inline html `<` (HTML style) You can write html tags directly in Slim which allows you to write your templates in a more html like style with closing tags or mix html and Slim style. head title Example - if articles.empty? - else table - articles.each do |a| #{a.name}#{a.description} ### Control code `-` The dash denotes control code. Examples of control code are loops and conditionals. `end` is forbidden behind `-`. Blocks are defined only by indentation. If your ruby code needs to use multiple lines, append a backslash `\` at the end of the lines. If your line ends with comma `,` (e.g because of a method call) you don't need the additional backslash before the linebreak. body - if articles.empty? | No inventory ### Output `=` The equal sign tells Slim it's a Ruby call that produces output to add to the buffer. If your ruby code needs to use multiple lines, append a backslash `\` at the end of the lines, for example: = javascript_include_tag \ "jquery", \ "application" If your line ends with comma `,` (e.g because of a method call) you don't need the additional backslash before the linebreak. ### Output with trailing white space `='` Same as the single equal sign (`=`), except that it adds a trailing white space. ### Output without HTML escaping `==` Same as the single equal sign (`=`), but does not go through the `escape_html` method. ### Output without HTML escaping and trailing ws `=='` Same as the double equal sign (`==`), except that it adds a trailing white space. ### Code comment `/` Use the forward slash for code comments - anything after it won't get displayed in the final render. Use `/` for code comments and `/!` for html comments body p / This line won't get displayed. Neither does this line. /! This will get displayed as html comments. The parsed result of the above:

### HTML comment `/!` Use the forward slash immediately followed by an exclamation mark for html comments (``). ### IE conditional comment `/[...]` /[if IE] p Get a better browser. renders as ## HTML tags ### Doctype tag The doctype tag is a special tag which can be used to generate the complex doctypes in a very simple way. XML VERSION doctype xml doctype xml ISO-8859-1 XHTML DOCTYPES doctype html doctype 5 doctype 1.1 doctype strict doctype frameset doctype mobile doctype basic doctype transitional HTML 4 DOCTYPES doctype strict doctype frameset doctype transitional ### Closed tags (trailing `/`) You can close tags explicitly by appending a trailing `/`. img src="image.png"/ Note, that this is usually not necessary since the standard html tags (img, br, ...) are closed automatically. ### Inline tags Sometimes you may want to be a little more compact and inline the tags. ul li.first: a href="/a" A link li: a href="/b" B link For readability, don't forget you can wrap the attributes. ul li.first: a[href="/a"] A link li: a[href="/b"] B link ### Text content Either start on the same line as the tag body h1 id="headline" Welcome to my site. Or nest it. You must use a pipe or a backtick to escape processing body h1 id="headline" | Welcome to my site. ### Dynamic content (`=` and `==`) Can make the call on the same line body h1 id="headline" = page_headline Or nest it. body h1 id="headline" = page_headline ### Attributes You write attributes directly after the tag. For normal text attributes you must use double `"` or single quotes `'` (Quoted attributes). a href="http://slim-lang.com" title='Slim Homepage' Goto the Slim homepage You can use text interpolation in the quoted attributes. #### Attributes wrapper If a delimiter makes the syntax more readable for you, you can use the characters `{...}`, `(...)`, `[...]` to wrap the attributes. body h1(id="logo") = page_logo h2[id="tagline" class="small tagline"] = page_tagline If you wrap the attributes, you can spread them across multiple lines: h2[id="tagline" class="small tagline"] = page_tagline You may use spaces around the wrappers and assignments: h1 id = "logo" = page_logo h2 [ id = "tagline" ] = page_tagline #### Quoted attributes Example: a href="http://slim-lang.com" title='Slim Homepage' Goto the Slim homepage You can use text interpolation in the quoted attributes: a href="http://#{url}" Goto the #{url} The attribute value will be escaped by default. Use == if you want to disable escaping in the attribute. a href=="&" You can break quoted attributes with backslash `\` a data-title="help" data-content="extremely long help text that goes on\ and one and one and then starts over...." #### Ruby attributes Write the ruby code directly after the `=`. If the code contains spaces you have to wrap the code into parentheses `(...)`. You can also directly write hashes `{...}` and arrays `[...]`. body table - for user in users do td id="user_#{user.id}" class=user.role a href=user_action(user, :edit) Edit #{user.name} a href=(path_to_user user) = user.name The attribute value will be escaped by default. Use == if you want to disable escaping in the attribute. a href==action_path(:start) You can also break ruby attributes with backslash `\` or trailing `,` as describe for control sections. #### Boolean attributes The attribute values `true`, `false` and `nil` are interpreted as booleans. If you use the attribut wrapper you can omit the attribute assigment input type="text" disabled="disabled" input type="text" disabled=true input(type="text" disabled) input type="text" input type="text" disabled=false input type="text" disabled=nil #### Attribute merging You can configure attributes to be merged if multiple are given (See option `:merge_attrs`). In the default configuration this is done for class attributes with the white space as delimiter. a.menu class="highlight" href="http://slim-lang.com/" Slim-lang.com This renders as You can also use an `Array` as attribute value and the array elements will be merged using the delimiter. a class=["menu","highlight"] a class=:menu,:highlight #### Splat attributes `*` The splat shortcut allows you turn a hash in to attribute/value pairs .card*{'data-url'=>place_path(place), 'data-id'=>place.id} = place.name renders as

Slim's house

You can also use methods or instance variables which return a hash as shown here: .card *method_which_returns_hash = place.name .card *@hash_instance_variable = place.name The hash attributes which support attribute merging (see Slim option `:merge_attrs`) can be given as an `Array` .first *{:class => [:second, :third]} Text renders as div class="first second third" #### Dynamic tags `*` You can create completely dynamic tags using the splat attributes. Just create a method which returns a hash with the :tag key. ruby: def a_unless_current @page_current ? {:tag => 'span'} : {:tag => 'a', :href => 'http://slim-lang.com/'} end - @page_current = true *a_unless_current Link - @page_current = false *a_unless_current Link renders as LinkLink ### Shortcuts #### Tag shortcuts You can define custom tag shortcuts by setting the option `:shortcut`. Slim::Engine.set_default_options :shortcut => {'c' => {:tag => 'container'}, '#' => {:attr => 'id'}, '.' => {:attr => 'class'} } We can use it in Slim code like this c.content Text which renders to Text #### Attribute shortcuts You can define custom shortcuts (Similar to `#` for id and `.` for class). In this example we add `&` to create a shortcut for the input elements with type attribute. Slim::Engine.set_default_options :shortcut => {'&' => {:tag => 'input', :attr => 'type'}, '#' => {:attr => 'id'}, '.' => {:attr => 'class'}} We can use it in Slim code like this &text name="user" &password name="pw" &submit which renders to In another example we add `@` to create a shortcut for the role attribute. Slim::Engine.set_default_options :shortcut => {'@' => {:attr => 'role'}, '#' => {:attr => 'id'}, '.' => {:attr => 'class'}} We can use it in Slim code like this .person@admin = person.name which renders to

Daniel

#### ID shortcut `#` and class shortcut `.` Similarly to Haml, you can specify the `id` and `class` attributes in the following shortcut form body h1#headline = page_headline h2#tagline.small.tagline = page_tagline .content = show_content This is the same as body h1 id="headline" = page_headline h2 id="tagline" class="small tagline" = page_tagline div class="content" = show_content ## Text interpolation Use standard Ruby interpolation. The text will be html escaped by default. body h1 Welcome #{current_user.name} to the show. | Unescaped #{{content}} is also possible. To escape the interpolation (i.e. render as is) body h1 Welcome \#{current_user.name} to the show. ## Embedded engines (Markdown, ...) Thanks to [Tilt](https://github.com/rtomayko/tilt), Slim has impressive support for embedding other template engines. Examples: coffee: square = (x) -> x * x markdown: #Header Hello from #{"Markdown!"} Second Line! Supported engines:

Filter	Required gems	Type	Description
ruby:	none	Shortcut	Shortcut to embed ruby code
javascript:	none	Shortcut	Shortcut to embed javascript code and wrap in script tag
css:	none	Shortcut	Shortcut to embed css code and wrap in style tag
sass:	sass	Compile time	Embed sass code and wrap in style tag
scss:	sass	Compile time	Embedd scss code and wrap in style tag
less:	less	Compile time	Embed less css code and wrap in style tag
styl:	styl	Compile time	Embed stylus css code and wrap in style tag
coffee:	coffee-script	Compile time	Compile coffee script code and wrap in script tag
asciidoc:	asciidoctor	Compile time + Interpolation	Compile AsciiDoc code and interpolate #\{variables} in text
markdown:	redcarpet/rdiscount/kramdown	Compile time + Interpolation	Compile markdown code and interpolate #\{variables} in text
textile:	redcloth	Compile time + Interpolation	Compile textile code and interpolate #\{variables} in text
creole:	creole	Compile time + Interpolation	Compile creole code and interpolate #\{variables} in text
wiki:, mediawiki:	wikicloth	Compile time + Interpolation	Compile wiki code and interpolate #\{variables} in text
rdoc:	rdoc	Compile time + Interpolation	Compile rdoc code and interpolate #\{variables} in text
builder:	builder	Precompiled	Embed builder code
nokogiri:	nokogiri	Precompiled	Embed nokogiri builder code
erb:	none	Precompiled	Embed erb code

The embedded engines can be configured in Slim by setting the options directly on the `Slim::Embedded` filter. Example: Slim::Embedded.default_options[:markdown] = {:auto_ids => false} ## Configuring Slim Slim and the underlying [Temple](https://github.com/judofyr/temple) framework are highly configurable. The way how you configure Slim depends a bit on the compilation mechanism (Rails or [Tilt](https://github.com/rtomayko/tilt)). It is always possible to set default options per `Slim::Engine` class. This can be done in Rails' environment files. For instance, in config/environments/development.rb you probably want: ### Default options # Indent html for pretty debugging and do not sort attributes (Ruby 1.8) Slim::Engine.set_default_options :pretty => true, :sort_attrs => false # Indent html for pretty debugging and do not sort attributes (Ruby 1.9) Slim::Engine.set_default_options pretty: true, sort_attrs: false You can also access the option hash directly: Slim::Engine.default_options[:pretty] = true ### Setting options at runtime There are two ways to set options at runtime. For Tilt templates (`Slim::Template`) you can set the options when you instatiate the template: Slim::Template.new('template.slim', optional_option_hash).render(scope) The other possibility is to set the options per thread which is interesting mostly for Rails: Slim::Engine.with_options(option_hash) do # Any Slim engines which are created here use the option_hash # For example in Rails: render :page, :layout => true end You have to be aware that the compiled engine code and the options are cached per template in Rails and you cannot change the option afterwards. # First render call Slim::Engine.with_options(:pretty => true) do render :page, :layout => true end # Second render call Slim::Engine.with_options(:pretty => false) do render :page, :layout => true # :pretty is still true because it is cached end ### Available options The following options are exposed by the `Slim::Engine` and can be set with `Slim::Engine.set_default_options`. There are a lot of them but the good thing is, that Slim checks the configuration keys and reports an error if you try to use an invalid configuration key.

Type	Name	Default	Purpose
String	:file	nil	Name of parsed file, set automatically by Slim::Template
Integer	:tabsize	4	Number of white spaces per tab (used by the parser)
String	:encoding	"utf-8"	Set encoding of template
String	:default_tag	"div"	Default tag to be used if tag name is omitted
Hash	:shortcut	\{'.' => {:attr => 'class'}, '#' => {:attr => 'id'}}	Attribute shortcuts
Array<Symbol,String>	:enable_engines	nil (All enabled)	List of enabled embedded engines (whitelist)
Array<Symbol,String>	:disable_engines	nil (None disabled)	List of disabled embedded engines (blacklist)
Boolean	:disable_capture	false (true in Rails)	Disable capturing in blocks (blocks write to the default buffer
Boolean	:disable_escape	false	Disable automatic escaping of strings
Boolean	:use_html_safe	false (true in Rails)	Use String#html_safe? from ActiveSupport (Works together with :disable_escape)
Symbol	:format	:xhtml	HTML output format (Possible formats :xhtml, :html4, :html5, :html)
String	:attr_quote	'"'	Character to wrap attributes in html (can be ' or ")
Hash	:merge_attrs	\{'class' => ' '}	Joining character used if multiple html attributes are supplied (e.g. class="class1 class2")
Array<String>	:hyphen_attrs	%w(data)	Attributes which will be hyphenated if a Hash is given (e.g. data={a:1,b:2} will render as data-a="1" data-b="2")
Boolean	:sort_attrs	true	Sort attributes by name
Symbol	:js_wrapper	nil	Wrap javascript by :comment, :cdata or :both. You can also :guess the wrapper based on :format.
Boolean	:pretty	false	Pretty html indenting (This is slower!)
String	:indent	' '	Indentation string
Boolean	:streaming	false (true in Rails > 3.1)	Enable output streaming
Class	:generator	Temple::Generators::ArrayBuffer/RailsOutputBuffer	Temple code generator (default generator generates array buffer)
String	:buffer	'_buf' ('@output_buffer' in Rails)	Variable used for buffer

There are more options which are supported by the Temple filters but which are not exposed and are not officially supported. You have to take a look at the Slim and Temple code for that. ### Option priority and inheritance For developers who know more about Slim and Temple architecture it is possible to override default options at different positions. Temple uses an inheritance mechanism to allow subclasses to override options of the superclass. The option priorities are as follows: 1. `Slim::Template` options passed at engine instatination 2. `Slim::Template.default_options` 3. `Slim::Engine.thread_options`, `Slim::Engine.default_options` 5. Parser/Filter/Generator `thread_options`, `default_options` (e.g `Slim::Parser`, `Slim::Compiler`) It is also possible to set options for superclasses like `Temple::Engine`. But this will affect all temple template engines then. Slim::Engine < Temple::Engine Slim::Compiler < Temple::Filter ## Plugins Slim currently provides plugins for logic less mode and I18n. See the plugin documentation. * [Logic less mode](doc/logic_less.md) * [Translator/I18ne](doc/translator.md) ## Framework support ### Tilt Slim uses [Tilt](https://github.com/rtomayko/tilt) to compile the generated code. If you want to use the Slim template directly, you can use the Tilt interface. Tilt.new['template.slim'].render(scope) Slim::Template.new('template.slim', optional_option_hash).render(scope) Slim::Template.new(optional_option_hash) { source }.render(scope) The optional option hash can have to options which were documented in the section above. ### Sinatra

require 'sinatra'
require 'slim'

get('/') { slim :index }

 __END__
@@ index
doctype html
html
  head
    title Sinatra With Slim
  body
    h1 Slim Is Fun!

### Rails Rails generators are provided by [slim-rails](https://github.com/slim-template/slim-rails). slim-rails is not necessary to use Slim in Rails though. Just install Slim and add it to your Gemfile with `gem 'slim'`. Then just use the .slim extension and you're good to go. #### Streaming HTTP streaming is enabled by default if you use a Rails version which supports it. ## Tools ### Slim Command 'slimrb' The gem 'slim' comes with the small tool 'slimrb' to test Slim from the command line.

$ slimrb --help
Usage: slimrb [options]
    -s, --stdin                      Read input from standard input instead of an input file
        --trace                      Show a full traceback on error
    -c, --compile                    Compile only but do not run
    -r, --rails                      Generate rails compatible code (Implies --compile)
    -t, --translator                 Enable translator plugin
    -l, --logic-less                 Enable logic less plugin
    -p, --pretty                     Produce pretty html
    -o, --option [NAME=CODE]         Set slim option
    -h, --help                       Show this message
    -v, --version                    Print version

Start 'slimrb', type your code and press Ctrl-d to send EOF. Example usage:

$ slimrb
markdown:
  First paragraph.

  Second paragraph.

  * one
  * two
  * three

//Enter Ctrl-d
<p>First paragraph </p>

<p>Second paragraph </p>

<ul>
<li>one</li>
<li>two</li>
<li>three</li>
</ul>

### Syntax Highlighters There are plugins for various text editors (including the most important ones - Vim, Emacs and Textmate): * [Vim](https://github.com/slim-template/vim-slim) * [Emacs](https://github.com/slim-template/emacs-slim) * [Textmate / Sublime Text](https://github.com/slim-template/ruby-slim.tmbundle) * [Espresso text editor](https://github.com/slim-template/Slim-Sugar) * [Coda](https://github.com/slim-template/Coda-2-Slim.mode) ### Template Converters (HAML, ERB, ...) * [Haml2Slim converter](https://github.com/slim-template/haml2slim) * [HTML2Slim converter](https://github.com/slim-template/html2slim) ## Testing ### Benchmarks *Yes, Slim is one of the fastest Ruby template engines out there! In production mode Slim is nearly as fast as Erubis (which is the fastest template engine). But we would be happy if you chose Slim also for any other reason, we assure you performance will not be an obstacle.* Run the benchmarks with `rake bench`. You can add the option `slow` to run the slow parsing benchmark which needs more time. You can also increase the number of iterations. rake bench slow=1 iterations=1000 We run the benchmarks for every commit on Travis-CI. Take a look at the newest benchmarking results: ### Test suite and continous integration Slim provides an extensive test-suite based on minitest. You can run the tests with 'rake test' and the rails integration tests with 'rake test:rails'. We are currently experimenting with human-readable literate tests which are written as markdown files: [TESTS.md](test/literate/TESTS.md) Travis-CI is used for continous integration testing: Slim is working well on all major Ruby implementations: * Ruby 1.8.7 * Ruby 1.9.2 * Ruby 1.9.3 * Ruby EE * JRuby * Rubinius 2.0 ## Contributing If you'd like to help improve Slim, clone the project with Git by running: $ git clone git://github.com/slim-template/slim Work your magic and then submit a pull request. We love pull requests! Please remember to test against Ruby versions 1.9.2 and 1.8.7. If you find the documentation lacking (and you probably will), help us out and update this README.md. If you don't have the time to work on Slim, but found something we should know about, please submit an issue. ## License Slim is released under the [MIT license](http://www.opensource.org/licenses/MIT). ## Authors * [Daniel Mendler](https://github.com/minad) (Lead developer) * [Andrew Stone](https://github.com/stonean) * [Fred Wu](https://github.com/fredwu) ## Discuss * [Google Group](http://groups.google.com/group/slim-template) ## Related projects Template compilation framework: * [Temple](https://github.com/judofyr/temple) Framework support: * [Rails generators (slim-rails)](https://github.com/slim-template/slim-rails) Syntax highlighting: * [Vim](https://github.com/slim-template/vim-slim) * [Emacs](https://github.com/slim-template/emacs-slim) * [Textmate / Sublime Text](https://github.com/slim-template/ruby-slim.tmbundle) * [Espresso text editor](https://github.com/slim-template/Slim-Sugar) * [Coda](https://github.com/slim-template/Coda-2-Slim.mode) Template Converters (HAML, ERB, ...): * [Haml2Slim converter](https://github.com/slim-template/haml2slim) * [HTML2Slim converter](https://github.com/slim-template/html2slim) Language ports/Similar languages: * [Coffee script plugin for Slim](https://github.com/yury/coffee-views) * [Clojure port of Slim](https://github.com/chaslemley/slim.clj) * [Hamlet.rb (Similar template language)](https://github.com/gregwebs/hamlet.rb) * [Plim (Python port of Slim)](https://github.com/2nd/plim) * [Skim (Slim for Javascript)](https://github.com/jfirebaugh/skim) * [Haml (Older engine which inspired Slim)](https://github.com/haml/haml) * [Jade (Similar engine for javascript)](https://github.com/visionmedia/jade)