GBTemplateHandler Class Reference

Inherits from NSObject
Declared in GBTemplateHandler.h<br />GBTemplateHandler.m

Overview

Loads a template file, prepares it for output generation and renders the output on any given object.

The main responsibilities of this class are loading template from file to string, parsing and extractng all template sections and rendering the template for any given object. As the first two tasks are actually combined into a single method, public API is even simpler: just create one instance of the class for each different template by sending parseTemplateFromPath:error: or parseTemplate:error: which loads, parses and verifies the template. Then send renderObject: to generate output from a concrete object.

Note that, as said above, there is no need to create a new GBTemplateHandler instance for each object for which we want to render output. It's enough and much more efficient to create a single instance for each different type of template and use it to generate as many objects from that template as needed.

Tasks

Initialization & disposal

Parsing

Rendering

Other Methods

Class Methods

handler

Returns a new autoreleased GBTemplateHandler .

+ (id)handler

Discussion

Returns a new autoreleased GBTemplateHandler .

Declared In

GBTemplateHandler.h
GBTemplateHandler.m

Instance Methods

clearParsedValues

init

lineOfSectionData:withinTemplate:

parseTemplate:error:

Parses the given template string and converts it into a ready-to-use template.

- (BOOL)parseTemplate:(NSString *)template error:(NSError **)error

Parameters

error
If parsing fails, error message is returned here.
path
The template string to parse.

Return Value

Returns YES if parsing was sucesful, NO otherwise.

Discussion

Parses the given template string and converts it into a ready-to-use template.

The results are parsed into templateString and templateSections . After reading the template from the file, you can re-use the class for generating all objects that need to be templated from read template. That is, there's no need of re-parsing the same template for each generation.

See Also

Declared In

GBTemplateHandler.h
GBTemplateHandler.m

parseTemplateFromPath:error:

Parses template file from the given path and converts it into a ready-to-use template.

- (BOOL)parseTemplateFromPath:(NSString *)path error:(NSError **)error

Parameters

path
The name of the template file to parse.
error
If reading or parsing fails, error message is returned here.

Return Value

Returns YES if parsing was sucesful, NO otherwise.

Discussion

Parses template file from the given path and converts it into a ready-to-use template.

The results are parsed into templateString and templateSections . After reading the template from the file, you can re-use the class for generating all objects that need to be templated from read template. That is, there's no need of re-parsing the same template for each generation.

See Also

Declared In

GBTemplateHandler.h
GBTemplateHandler.m

renderObject:

Renders the given object using current template data.

- (NSString *)renderObject:(id)object

Parameters

object
The object containins data to be replaced by template placeholders.

Return Value

Returns generated output string.

Discussion

Renders the given object using current template data.

This is where template placeholders get replaced with actual values from the given object and as thus the main focus of the GBTemplateHandler class. The object must contain all expected variables as defined by the template. Failing to provide required values will result in that part of the template being ignored, but may also result in unpredicted behavior, so it's better to make sure proper objects are passed to proper templates.

Important: Note that this message can only be sent after parsing template with one of the parsing methods! Sending the message to a class with no parsed data results in a warning and empty string being returned.

See Also

Declared In

GBTemplateHandler.h
GBTemplateHandler.m

validateSectionData:withTemplate: