How can I precompile HandlebarsJS templates from Visual Studio?

Question

Is it possible to precompile Handlebars Templates from a postbuild event of Visual Studio or in the App_Start of a MVC web app? Thanks so much in advance. Dale

Answer 1

One way to do this is using bundle transform and the jurrasic js compiler to generate a js file with all your compiled views and partial views in it.

public class BundleConfig
{
    public static void RegisterHandlBarBundles(BundleCollection bundles, string path)
    {
        HandleBarBundleTransform transform = new HandleBarBundleTransform();
        transform.jsPath = path;
        bundles.Add(new Bundle("~/views.js", transform).IncludeDirectory("~/views", "*.hbs", true));
        BundleTable.EnableOptimizations = true;
    }
}

This has the benefit of not requiring node.js or ember while still using a simple bundletransform hook.

The full source for the HandleBarBundleTransform is here.

This has the convenience of the ember solution(s) @ahmed posted for those not using ember.