templatetxt

templatetxt is a lightweight templating library designed for generating plain text by substituting placeholders in templates. It is language-agnostic in concept and provides adapters for several programming languages, enabling reuse of templates across projects such as emails, reports, configuration files, and code generation. The project emphasizes simplicity, readability of templates, and predictable rendering.

Core features of templatetxt include a compact templating syntax with placeholders like {{variable}} for values, optional filters such as |upper or |trim, and basic control structures for conditionals and loops in a minimal form. It supports defining and reusing partial templates, template caching for performance, streaming rendering, and safe escaping to prevent unintended content in various destinations.

Design and syntax trade a balance between human readability and expressiveness. The syntax is intended to be forgiving of missing data and focuses on producing clean plain text output without default HTML escaping, which makes it suitable for emails and documents. The engine compiles templates into an internal representation for fast rendering and can be extended with custom functions or filters to tailor behavior to specific domains.

Usage and availability: templatetxt is distributed as an open-source project with implementations in multiple languages and can be installed via common package managers. Typical usage involves loading a template from a file or string and rendering it with a data object to produce the final text. Common patterns include variable substitution, conditional blocks, and simple loops for repeated sections.

History and reception: Templetxt originated in a community project aimed at standardizing simple text templates and has seen adoption in small teams and open-source tooling for document generation. Maintainers emphasize backward compatibility, clear error reporting, and straightforward integration into existing pipelines.