Template parsing thoughts - nortal/Utilities.TextTemplating GitHub Wiki

First pass: separation of text and commands

First scanner pass will output input template broken into a linear stream of text and command blocks.

Rules:

• Command start and end tag markers are omitted from output command texts
• Command start and end tag markers can be used as part of ordinary text or command themselves if written double.
• Every command start must be closed with end tag. Template with unclosed command will be rejected with error.
• Command mode strings must not intersect. Such templates will be rejected with error.

Second pass: parsing of commands

Command parser will verify each command has correct syntax and determine if command is a function command or a path to model.

Function commands are broken to components:

• function name
• array of provided arguments

Model path commands are broken to components:

• array of model property names
• optional format string

Third pass: building parse tree

Template will be represented as tree for efficient document generation later.