Introduction

Meziantou.Framework.Templating turns a text template into text. You write the text as it must appear, and put C# code in code blocks (<%= ... %> and <% ... %> by default). The library compiles the template with the C# compiler into an assembly, then runs it with the arguments you pass.

Packages

What you can do with it

• Generate any text: source code, configuration files, reports, with loops and conditions written in C#. See Template syntax.
• Pass typed arguments, including your own types, by position or by name. See Passing arguments.
• Use .NET libraries from a template: import namespaces, reference assemblies, include C# files and share helpers through a base class. See Using code and libraries.
• Write HTML emails that encode every value for its context, and get the subject and the embedded images of the message. See HTML emails.
• Generate files from scripts and builds with the command-line tool, which also reads T4-style templates. See Command-line tool.

Principles

• A template is a C# program. Its code runs in your process, with the permissions of your application. Only run templates that you trust: never compile a template written by a user of your application.
• Compile once, run many times. Compiling is the expensive step and happens once per template; each run only executes the compiled code. See Compilation and memory.
• Errors point to the template. Compiler errors and the stack traces of exceptions give the lines of the template, not of the generated code. See Errors and debugging.
• You control the memory. Each template is compiled into its own assembly, which is unloaded when you dispose the template, as long as the template declares its types.

Namespace

Every public type is in the Meziantou.Framework.Templating namespace, including the HTML email types of Meziantou.Framework.Templating.Html.

Next steps

• Getting started: install the package and render your first template.
• Template syntax: the blocks a template is made of.
• Limitations: what the library does not do.