Choosing a templating language
CherryPy is an open-ended Web framework that integrates with a wide variety of templating systems. This document is to help you choose which one is right for you.
Cheetah
| Feature | Supported | Comment
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| Caching | [X] | You can compile templates into python classes.
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| Speed | moderate | Not a speed demon. But critical part of the library (the namemapper) is also available as binary for linux, windows and makes for great performance improvement
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| Wysiwyg | [ ] | No. Use any text editor
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| Flexibility | Great |
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| Pythonic design | [X] | Very much so, it can use python constructs in the template
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| Pure python | Yes |
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| XML Syntax | [ ] | Thank heavens no!
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| Language elements | | See the Cheetah docs
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| Learning curve | very short |
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| Community | Large |
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| Summary: | | Cheetah is one of the simplest and most comprehensive templating engines you'll find. Excellent documentation.
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ClearSilver
| Feature | Supported | Comment
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| Caching | [ ] |
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| Speed | | Untested, we don't have a benchmark yet
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| Wysiwyg | [ ] | No. Use any text editor
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| Targets | All
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| Flexibility | Great |
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| Pythonic design | [] | Written in c, includes drivers for python, ruby, perl, and java
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| CherryPy Integration | [] |
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| Pure python | No |
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| XML Syntax | [X] |
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| Language elements | | See the ClearSilver docs
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| Learning curve | short |
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| Community | Small |
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| i18n | [] |
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| Summary: | | ClearSilver uses a dataset driven approach which completely separates layout and application logic.
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See the tutorial.
| Feature | Supported | Comment
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| Caching | [X] |
|
| Speed | | http://genshi.edgewall.org/wiki/GenshiPerformance
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| WYSIWYG | [X] | If you're using a XHTML Compliant WYSIWYG editor.
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| Targets | XML or Text | Only used for outputting structured text files or XML based files such as XHTML
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| Flexibility | Great |
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| Pythonic design | [X] |
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| CherryPy Integration | [X] | Genshi Tutorial, using CherryPy
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| Pure python | [X] |
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| XML Syntax | [X] | XHTML + additional namespaces
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| Language elements | | XHTML + additional tags and inline Python. See Genshi's Documentation.
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| Learning curve | short | Do you know XHTML? Then you're 75% of the way there!
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| Community | Growing | Trac and TurboGears (via ToscaWidgets) are both moving to Genshi.
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| i18n | [X] |
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| Summary: | | Plain XHTML templates make Genshi easy to use even for web designers who don't know Python. Its considered by many to be the successor to Kid.
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Kid
HTMLTemplate
Nevow
PSP
| Feature | Supported | Comment
|
| Caching | [ ] | Left to the user.
|
| Speed | | Untested, we don't have a benchmark yet
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| Wysiwyg | [X] | Templates are pure HTML/XHTML and can contain dummy content
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| Targets | All
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| Flexibility | HTML-ish markup only. No other formats. |
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| Pythonic design | [X] | Very.
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| CherryPy Integration | [] |
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| Pure python | Yes |
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| XML Syntax | [] | Not really. Relies on "id" attributes in HTML/XHTML.
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| Language elements | | See the PyMeld docs
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| Learning curve | Gentle and short |
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| Community | None? |
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| i18n | [] | Left to user
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| Summary: | | Elegant and unique tool for manipulating HTML in a Pythonic way. Any (X)HTML element with an "id" attribute can be manipulated -- including cloning, deletion, or attribute changing.
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XSLT
| Feature | Supported | Comment
|
| Caching | [ ] | None but the Picket filter has a basic cache.
|
| Speed | | Untested, we don't have a benchmark yet
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| Wysiwyg | [ ] | No. Use any text editor or specific XSL editor
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| Targets | All
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| Flexibility | Great |
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| Pythonic design | [] | It's totally language/plateform independant
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| CherryPy Integration | [X] | Picket? is a filter implementation using the 4Suite framework
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| Pure python | No |
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| XML Syntax | [X] |
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| Language elements | | See the XSLT doc
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| Learning curve | Depends on you | XSLT is quite a big beast but you will find plenty of documentation
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| Community | Big |
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| i18n | [X] |
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| Summary: | | It's a standard. XSLT is fantastic if you are mainly using XML documents. It's also totally language and platform independent and therefore you will not have to learn a new templating language if you change your programming language.
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Xyaptu
| Feature | Supported | Comment
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| Caching | [ ] | Only if there is a DoneByMyselfImplementation. - xyaptu is a templating unit, nothing more..
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| Speed | | Untested, we don't have a benchmark yet
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| Wysiwyg | [ ] | Nope: Nano, vim, emacs, notepad.... but by using xmlstyle tags, the language is designed not to interfere with graphical design software (as long as this software will also leave in unknown tags that is)
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| Targets | anything | Wether it be javascript, xml, html, python, csv or whatever you want.
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| Flexibility | no complaints | Loops, conditions, not target language dependant
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| Pythonic design | [X] | Using dictionaries, tuples, strings and generators
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| CherryPy Integration | [X] | There is a filter built on top of CherryPy, including samples etc
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| Pure python | [X] | all the way. 3 modules: the Filter, Xyaptu and Yaptu - works everywhere
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| Language elements | 7 | See the XyaptuFilter?, subsection Markup-syntax
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| Learning curve | curve? | Hardly any. The filter might be the toughest part (say, 5 minutes?)
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| Community | Tiny | Too bad, but it's the truth
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| i18n | [X] | not using the i18n module though. Xyaptu is based on Document Name Spaces, this is a regular dictionary. The keys are in your template, and will be replaced with the values in this dictionary. So having multiple dictionaries (one for each language) is enough.. It's not perfect, but at least it's something usefull :)
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| Summary: | | see: XyaptuFilter?
Xyaptu stands for: eXtended Yet Another Python Templating Unit
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ZPT
| Feature | Supported | Comment
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| Caching | [ ] | Unknown |
|
| Speed | [ ] |
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| WYSIWYG | [ ] | XHTML can be edited in a WYSIWYG editor, with scripting is placed in an XML namespace for tags and attributes
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| Targets | XML | Includes XHTML and other XML formats (SVG, MathML, etc.)
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| Pythonic design | [ ] |
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| Flexibility | |
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| CherryPy Integration | |
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| Pure Python | [X] |
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| XML Syntax | [X] |
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| Language Elements | | See ZPT Documentation
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| Learning Curve | Medium | Learning curve depends on knowledge of Python and XML
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| Community | Medium | Zope depends on ZPT, so community support is readily available.
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| i18n | Unknown | i18n features are available in the Zope framework, but may not work outside of Zope.
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| Summary | | Zope Page Templates are relatively easy for web designers to edit without disturbing scripting already embedded in the page. The basic syntax tends to be clean and simple, while more complex tasks are possible. However, ZPT can only be used with XML documents, not other text-based documents such as CSS or JavaScript?.
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py.xml
| Feature | Supported | Comment
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| Caching | [ ] | None |
|
| Speed | [ ] |
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| WYSIWYG | [ ] | No. Use any text editor
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| Targets | XML | Includes XHTML and other XML formats (SVG, MathML, etc.)
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| Pythonic design | [X] | py.xml is designed to be a Python to generating XML
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| Flexibility | |
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| CherryPy Integration | |
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| Pure Python | [X] |
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| XML Syntax | [ ] | No. All code is generated with Python calls
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| Language Elements | |
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| Learning Curve | None | If you can do Python you can do py.xml
|
| Community | Unknown |
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| i18n | None | You will have to provide i18n yourself
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| Summary | | The py lib offers a pythonic way to generate xml/html, based on ideas from xist which uses python class objects to build xml trees. However, xist's implementation is somewhat heavy because it has additional goals like transformations and supporting many namespaces. But its basic idea is very easy.
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Old/Unmaintained
CherryTemplate
See http://cherrytemplate.python-hosting.com/
