Finds template files in a pre-configured directory and merges them into a list of script tags that can be added to a layout file. This way you can use and share the external template in all places without paying for an extra request per template file (as with other methods for sharing templates).

For AspNet5: don't use this, it's much better to use gulp to do something equivalent.

Get the nuget package here, or:

Install-Package ExternalTemplates.Mvc

You'll have to manually register a couple of services in your dependency resolver (autofac, ninject, ...):

• IApplicationBasePathProvider to ApplicationBasePathProvider
• IGeneratorOptions to GeneratorOptions
• IFilesProvider to FilesProvider
• ICoreGenerator to CoreGenerator

Register them all as singletons.

Next, just add the following anywhere in your layout file:

@ExternalTemplates.Generator.Generate()

Register IGeneratorOptions to whatever you like. You can use GeneratorOptions and set its values.

An example with autofac:

builder.RegisterInstance<GeneratorOptions>(new GeneratorOptions
	{
		VirtualPath = "Views/templates", // Look for templates in Views/templates. Default is "Content/templates"
		Extension = ".template.html", // Look for files with extension ".template.html". Default is ".tmpl.html"
		PostString = "-template" // Append "-template" to the script tag's id. Default is "-tmpl"
	})
	.As<IGeneratorOptions>()
	.SingleInstance();

Get the nuget package here, or:

Install-Package ExternalTemplates.AspNet

Next, register the services:

services.AddExternalTemplates()

In your layout file:

@inject ExternalTemplates.IGenerator Generator
@Generator.Generate()

services.AddExternalTemplates().ConfigureExternalTemplates(options => {
	options.VirtualPath = "Views/templates";
	options.PostString = "-template";
});

The default path for templates is Content/templates with an extension .tmpl.html. So if you add a file article.tmpl.html you can be sure that there will be a script tag with an id of article-tmpl available to be used with your templating engine of choice (knockout, moustache, ...).

Generate() is equivalent to calling Generate("~") which will generate top level templates in the templates directory. Generate takes an array of strings that represents groups that you want to generate. The default behavior is that every subfolder in the templates folder is considered a group.

So if you have the following structure:

- templates
	- foo.tmpl.html
	- group1
		- bar.tmpl.html

Generate() will find foo.tmpl.html only, whereas Generate("group1") will find bar.tmpl.html. If you want to just generate everything (top level + all groups), call Generate with an empty string.