Request: View configuration to autoload helepers

[Iheartweb]

Helpers like partials are a nearly ubiquitous concept among tempting engines. Just like partials it would be nice to be able to express a path in the view config:

views: {
  engines: { html: 'handlebars' },
  path: __dirname + '/templates',
  partialsPath: __dirname + '/templates/withPartials',
  helpersPath: __dirname + '/templates/helpers'
} 

Currently I achieve the desired functionality by:

var Hapi = require('hapi'),
  handlebars = require('handlebars'),
  loader = require('node-glob-loader');

// Load View Helpers
loader.load('./application/views/helpers/*.js', function (exports) {
  exports(handlebars);
});

With the config: views.engine.module = handelbars.

And the helpers following the form:

module.exports = function (handlebars) {
  handlebars.registerHelper('foo', function () {
    return 'bar';
  });
};

[hueniverse]

Is the idea to map the filename (without the js extension) to a single exported function?

So the helpers path will include a 'foo.js' with content:

module.exports = function (context) { return context.something; }

Which hapi will register via:

engine.registerHelper('foo', require('foo'));

[Iheartweb]

Sounds about right. A little more detail though.

Typically, each helper is in a file, rather than all helpers in one file. So, any configuration would have to accept a directory or a file with or without the js. So:

/
--templates
----helpers
------foo.js
------bar.js

helpersPath = __dirname + '/templates/helpers' will load foo.js && bar.js and helpersPath = __dirname + '/templates/helpers/foo' or ...foo.js should just load foo.js.

The 2nd part that makes this tricky is that although nearly all tmpl engines have helpers, they are declared in a slightly different way. And, I'm not sure Consolidate provides a standard interface.

The 3rd part (that makes this a lame request) Using fs to load files is a bit slow. Applications with a glut of helpers will start slowly. Furthermore, Hapi.createServer(...).start() should not be called until all helpers have loaded.

[lock]

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