Problem
In PHP I'd do this
<html>
<body>
<script>
<?php
$templates = array(
'result' => file_get_contents('template.html')
);
echo '__templates = ' . json_encode($templates) . ';';
?>
</script>
</body>
</html>
So I did this in Sinatra
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
__templates = <%= get_templates %>;
</script>
</body>
</html>
And my Sinatra routes file looks like this:
require 'sinatra'
require 'json'
require 'erb'
helpers do
def get_templates
{'result' => (erb :template2)}.to_json
end
end
get '/' do
erb :index
end
But my javascript object ends up broken when I consume the __templates object from jquery.
What does ruby's to_json do that PHP's does not?
php result
{"result":"<!doctype html>\n<html>\n\n<head>\n\t<meta charset=\"UTF-8\">\n\t<title>{{ TITLE }}<\/title>\n\n\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t{{ CSS }}\n\t<\/style>\n<\/head>\n\n<body>\n\n\t{{{ HTML }}}\n\n\t<script src=\"{{{ JSLIB }}}\"><\/script>\n\t<script src=\"{{{ PREFIX }}}\"><\/script>\n\t<script>\n\t\tfunction __run() {\n\t\t\t{{{ JS }}}\n\t\t}\n\t<\/script>\n\n<\/body>\n\n<\/html>"}
ruby result
{"result":"<!doctype html>\n<html>\n\n<head>\n <meta charset=\"UTF-8\">\n <title>{{ TITLE }}</title>\n\n <style type=\"text/css\">\n {{ CSS}}\n </style>\n</head>\n\n<body>\n\n {{{ HTML }}}\n\n <script src=\"{{{ JSLIB }}}\"></script>\n <script src=\"{{{ PREFIX }}}\"></script>\n <script>\n function __run() {\n {{{ JS }}}\n }\n </script>\n\n</body>\n\n</html>\n"};
notice the <\/body> on the php version.
Solution (for now)
I found a solution based on comments posted below. However, I'm not sure if this is the 'one true way', if that exists. NOTE: I'd like to know if this implementation would break something else down the road. I'll be depending on this function throughout my application.
I ended up just using gsub to solve my problem. I wrapped it in a helper like this
helpers do
def close embedded_json
embedded_json.gsub('</', '<\/')
end
...
end
and called it like this
__templates = <%= close get_templates %>;
it seems jangy, but under the covers, maybe the helpers alluded to in rails do the same thing? I'm going to move on for now, but I'd still like to know if I'll be shot in the foot later by this.
