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Text and Email Generation with Handlebars.NET Templates in .NET

Introduction

In today's software landscape, personalized communication via emails, notifications, or text messages is integral to engaging users effectively. Templating engines like Handlebars.NET provide a powerful solution for generating dynamic content with ease. In the .NET ecosystem, Handlebars.NET stands out as a versatile and user-friendly tool for creating text and email templates.

Understanding Handlebars.NET

Handlebars.NET is a popular templating engine that enables developers to create dynamic templates for various purposes, including rendering HTML, generating text files, composing emails, and more. Inspired by the simplicity of Mustache templates, Handlebars.NET expands upon it, offering additional features like helpers and partials while retaining an intuitive syntax.

Installation

Getting started with Handlebars.NET is straightforward through NuGet.

dotnet add package Handlebars.Net

Creating Text Templates

Text templates are instrumental in generating dynamic content for various purposes such as SMS notifications, reports, or even configuration files.

Basic Text Template Example

Let's consider a simple example of a text template.

Hello, {{name}}!
Your order ({{orderNumber}}) has been shipped.
Estimated delivery date: {{deliveryDate}}

Rendering Text Templates

var template = Handlebars.Compile("Hello, {{name}}!");
var context = new { name = "John Doe" };
var result = template(context); // Generates: Hello, John Doe!

Handlebars.NET allows dynamic binding of data to placeholders within the template, making it easy to generate personalized messages.

Crafting Email Templates

Emails often require richer content and formatting compared to plain text. Handlebars.NET supports HTML templates, enabling the creation of visually appealing and dynamic email content.

HTML Email Template Example

Consider an email template.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>{{subject}}</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Hello, {{name}}!</h1>
    <p>Your order ({{orderNumber}}) has been shipped.</p>
    <p>Estimated delivery date: {{deliveryDate}}</p>
</body>
</html>

Rendering HTML Email Templates

var htmlTemplate = Handlebars.Compile(File.ReadAllText("email-template.html"));
var emailContext = new
{
    subject = "Order Shipped Notification",
    name = "John Doe",
    orderNumber = "12345",
    deliveryDate = "January 20, 2024"
};
var htmlResult = htmlTemplate(emailContext);

Handlebars.NET allows developers to create dynamic HTML content for emails effortlessly by replacing placeholders with actual data.

Leveraging Helpers and Partials

Handlebars.NET introduces helpers and partials to enhance template capabilities further.

Helpers

Helpers allow the execution of custom logic within templates. For instance, formatting dates or numbers.

Handlebars.RegisterHelper("formatDate", (writer, context, parameters) =>
{
    if (parameters.Length > 0 && parameters[0] is DateTime date)
    {
        writer.WriteSafeString(date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"));
    }
});

Partials

Partials enable reusing sections of templates across multiple templates.

<!-- Partial template -->
<h1>{{title}}</h1>

<!-- Main template using the partial -->
{{> header title="Welcome"}}

Conclusion

Handlebars.NET simplifies the generation of dynamic text and email content in .NET applications. Its intuitive syntax, support for data binding, and extensibility through helpers and partials make it a powerful tool for creating personalized communication.

By leveraging Handlebars.NET, developers can streamline the process of crafting dynamic templates, enabling personalized and engaging communication with users through emails, notifications, or any text-based medium. Whether it's creating simple text messages or crafting visually appealing HTML emails, Handlebars.NET empowers developers to create dynamic content efficiently within their .NET applications.


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