How can I automatically add some skeleton code when creating a new file with vim

Question

When creating a new file with vim, I would like to automatically add some skeleton code.

For example, when creating a new xml file, I would like to add the first lin

Answer 1

You can save your skeleton/template to a file, for example ~/vim/skeleton.xml

Then add the following to your .vimrc

augroup Xml
    au BufNewFile *.xml 0r ~/vim/skeleton.xml
augroup end

Answer 2

You can add various hooks when files are read or created. to

:help event

and read what's there. What you want is

:help BufNewFile

Answer 3

I wrote a plugin for html:

On vim scripts: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=4845

On Github: https://github.com/linuscl/vim-htmltemplate

Answer 4

Sorry for the lateness, but I feel the way I do it might be useful to some. It uses the file's filetype, making it shorter and more dynamic than more conventional methods. It was tested only on Vim 7.3.

if has("win32") || has ('win64')
    let $VIMHOME = $HOME."/vimfiles/"
else
    let $VIMHOME = $HOME."/.vim/"
endif

" add templates in templates/ using filetype as file name
au BufNewFile * :silent! exec ":0r ".$VIMHOME."templates/".&ft

Answer 5

I got something like this in my .vimrc:

au BufNewFile *.xml 0r ~/.vim/xml.skel | let IndentStyle = "xml"
au BufNewFile *.html 0r ~/.vim/html.skel | let IndentStyle = "html"

And so on, whatever you'll need.

Answer 6

It can work with snipmate too:

augroup documentation
    au!
    au BufNewFile *.py :call ExecuteSnippet('docs')
augroup END

function! ExecuteSnippet(name)
    execute "normal! i" . a:name . "\<c-r>=TriggerSnippet()\<cr>"
endfunction

with "docs" the snippet to trigger.

It works with multi-snippets but then the :messages window appears and it's cumbersome.