Creating Templates

An Askama template is a struct definition which provides the template context combined with a UTF-8 encoded text file (or inline source, see below). Askama can be used to generate any kind of text-based format. The template file's extension may be used to provide content type hints.

A template consists of text contents, which are passed through as-is, expressions, which get replaced with content while being rendered, and tags, which control the template's logic. The template syntax is very similar to Jinja, as well as Jinja-derivatives like Twig or Tera.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
#[derive(Template)] // this will generate the code...
#[template(path = "hello.html")] // using the template in this path, relative
                                 // to the `templates` dir in the crate root
struct HelloTemplate<'a> { // the name of the struct can be anything
    name: &'a str, // the field name should match the variable name
                   // in your template
}
}

The template() attribute

Askama works by generating one or more trait implementations for any struct type decorated with the #[derive(Template)] attribute. The code generation process takes some options that can be specified through the template() attribute. The following sub-attributes are currently recognized:

• path (as path = "foo.html"): sets the path to the template file. The path is interpreted as relative to the configured template directories (by default, this is a templates directory next to your Cargo.toml). The file name extension is used to infer an escape mode (see below). In web framework integrations, the path's extension may also be used to infer the content type of the resulting response. Cannot be used together with source.

  #![allow(unused)]
  fn main() {
  #[derive(Template)]
  #[template(path = "hello.html")]
  struct HelloTemplate<'a> { ... }
  }

• source (as source = "{{ foo }}"): directly sets the template source. This can be useful for test cases or short templates. The generated path is undefined, which generally makes it impossible to refer to this template from other templates. If source is specified, ext must also be specified (see below). Cannot be used together with path.

  #![allow(unused)]
  fn main() {
  #[derive(Template)]
  #[template(source = "Hello {{ name }}")]
  struct HelloTemplate<'a> {
      name: &'a str,
  }
  }

• ext (as ext = "txt"): lets you specify the content type as a file extension. This is used to infer an escape mode (see below), and some web framework integrations use it to determine the content type. Cannot be used together with path.

  #![allow(unused)]
  fn main() {
  #[derive(Template)]
  #[template(source = "Hello {{ name }}", ext = "txt")]
  struct HelloTemplate<'a> {
      name: &'a str,
  }
  }

• print (as print = "code"): enable debugging by printing nothing (none), the parsed syntax tree (ast), the generated code (code) or all for both. The requested data will be printed to stdout at compile time.

  #![allow(unused)]
  fn main() {
  #[derive(Template)]
  #[template(path = "hello.html", print = "all")]
  struct HelloTemplate<'a> { ... }
  }

• block (as block = "block_name"): renders the block by itself. Expressions outside of the block are not required by the struct, and inheritance is also supported. This can be useful when you need to decompose your template for partial rendering, without needing to extract the partial into a separate template or macro.

  #![allow(unused)]
  fn main() {
  #[derive(Template)]
  #[template(path = "hello.html", block = "hello")]
  struct HelloTemplate<'a> { ... }
  }

• escape (as escape = "none"): override the template's extension used for the purpose of determining the escaper for this template. See the section on configuring custom escapers for more information.

  #![allow(unused)]
  fn main() {
  #[derive(Template)]
  #[template(path = "hello.html", escape = "none")]
  struct HelloTemplate<'a> { ... }
  }

• syntax (as syntax = "foo"): set the syntax name for a parser defined in the configuration file. The default syntax , "default", is the one provided by Askama.

  #![allow(unused)]
  fn main() {
  #[derive(Template)]
  #[template(path = "hello.html", syntax = "foo")]
  struct HelloTemplate<'a> { ... }
  }

• config (as config = "config_file_path"): set the path for the config file to be used. The path is interpreted as relative to your crate root.

  #![allow(unused)]
  fn main() {
  #[derive(Template)]
  #[template(path = "hello.html", config = "config.toml")]
  struct HelloTemplate<'a> { ... }
  }