Changing template tag start/end so {%Content%} becomes @_Content_@

[AJ-Ianozi]

YASS currently uses the AWS templates parser.

For those not familiar, you can use operators and tags in the layout html files like:

<div id="content">
   @@IF@@ @_EXIST:details_@
      <details>
         <summary>Table of Contents</summary>
         <ul>
         @@TABLE@@
            <li><a href="#@_detailslink_@">@_details_@</a></li>
         @@END_TABLE@@
         </ul>
      </details>
   @@END_IF@@
@_Content_@
</div>

In YASS, the pre & postfix for tags are {% and %} instead of @_ and _@, so in YASS the default is currently:

<div id="content">
   @@IF@@ {%EXIST:details%}
      <details>
         <summary>Table of Contents</summary>
         <ul>
         @@TABLE@@
            <li><a href="#{%detailslink%}">{%details%}</a></li>
         @@END_TABLE@@
         </ul>
      </details>
   @@END_IF@@
{%Content%}
</div>

You can change this in your site.cfg, but if you don't set it, it defaults to {% and %}.

I'm trying to weigh the pros of cons of setting the default to @_ and _@ since that's what all of AWS's template documentation uses.

Some pros are:

• It's consistent with the other AWS operators (e.g. @@IF@@, @@TABLE@@ etc).
  • This is the biggest pro for me.
• It's identical to AWS's documentation, so you can link directly to its other items.
• No longer need to override the start/end template unless the change is defined in site.cfg.

Some cons are:

• {% and %} are familiar to those migrating from jekyll / liquid
• Anyone who upgrades to version 4 without updating their config with Start_TagSeparator = {% and End_TagSeparator = %} will have to change their pages or their site will break.
  • This is the biggest con for me

What do others think?

[jquorning]

I do not quite know if this is relevant: mold, mold_lib

[AJ-Ianozi]

Mold looks pretty cool! My only hangup is if it doesn't support looping through vectors of variables the same way @@TABLE@@ does (but I need to look deeper through the examples to see if that happens to be the case).

[AJ-Ianozi]

I'm moving forward with this, and this is my plan:

In YASS 3.2:

1. New sites will generate with Start_TagSeparator = @_ and End_TagSeparator = _@ and leverage the updated format.
2. Defaults will still be left to use {% and %}
3. If a default is not provided, a warning message will be presented in the output notifying them that in version 4 will use @_ and _@, and recommend that they add Start_TagSeparator = {% and End_TagSeparator = %} and prompt if they would like to add these to site.cfg. If they say yes, YASS will automatically append this to the end.

In YASS 4:

1. The defaults will be changed from {% and %} to @_ and _@.
2. If Start_TagSeparator and End_TagSeparator are not defined, update the warning message created in YASS 3.2 to note that we no longer support {% and %} in case it's used, but don't prompt to update. NOTE: If I can figure out how to detect use of {% and %} with limited impact to performance I could change it so if no default is defined, then check if it uses {% with no reference of @_ and then provide the prompt and suggestion to automatically append. Still thinking that through.

In future version of YASS:

1. Remove warning message.