StringTemplate 4 .NET C# - Getting Started

Here's the basic idea for rendering a template in C#. String Template has weak .NET/C# documentation from what I can tell.

Resources

• StringTemplate C# Releases / StringTemplate 4 .NET (Direct Download)
• StringTemplate 4 Language Support for Visual Studio 2010 (optional)
• Syntax Cheat Sheet (optional)

Visual Studio Project References

• Antlr3.Runtime.dll
• Antlr4.StringTemplate.dll

C# Code
Returns template output.

using System;
using System.IO;
using Antlr4.StringTemplate;

public namespace YourNamespace
{
 public class Tester
 {
  public string HelloWorld()
  {
   Template template;

   var path = @"C:\templates\template.st";
   var file = new FileInfo(path);
   using (StreamReader reader = file.OpenText())
    template = new Template(reader.ReadToEnd(), '$', '$'); // custom delimeter (defaults are "<" and ">")

   template.Add("string", "Hello World!");
   template.Add("array", new string[] { "Record A", "Record B", "Record C" });
   template.Add("object", new { PropertyA = "A", PropertyB = "B" });

   return template.Render();
  }
 }
}

Template File

$! file: C:\templates\template.st !$
String: 
 $string$

Array:
 $array:{it|$it$ ($i$)};separator=", "$

Object:
 Property A = $object.PropertyA$
 Property B = $object.PropertyB$

Gotchas
Upgrading from 3.2 to 4 today has been an unpleasant experience.

• Curly braces need to be escaped with a backslash within loops, I don't remember having to do this before.

  $items:{item|
  \t{ ... item.property ... \}
  }$
  

• Speaking of loops, the "it" alias no longer works. You have to alias them every time now.
  Good:
  

  $items:{it| $it.property$ }$

  Bad:
  

  $items:{ $it.property$ }$

• This was likely invalid before but you can't put your $ variables in if statements anymore.
  Good:

   $if(mybool)$ ... $endif$

  Bad:

   $if($mybool$)$ ... $endif$