Manila is a no-frills template engine for Node 4+.

npm install manila

// index.js
const app = require('express')(),
	manila = require('manila')();

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
	res.render('index', {
		message: 'Hello, world!'
	});
});

// Pass Manila to Express
app.engine('mnla', manila);
// Register Manila as a view engine
app.set('view engine', 'mnla');
// Set the views directory
app.set('views', './views');

app.listen(3000);

<!-- views/index.mnla -->
<h1><:message:></h1>

Run node index and open http://localhost:3000 in your browser to see the rendered result.

// index.js
const http = require('http'),
	manila = require('manila')();

http.createServer((req, res) => {

	manila('index.mnla', { message: 'Hello, world!' }, function(err, html) {
		res.writeHead(200, 'text/html; charset=UTF-8');
		res.end(html);
	});

}).listen(3000);

<!-- views/index.mnla -->
<h1><:message:></h1>

When calling manila, you can either provide a callback or use a promise. The following is effectively the same as the example above:

// index.js
const http = require('http'),
	manila = require('manila')();

http.createServer((req, res) => {

	manila('index.mnla', { message: 'Hello, world!' })
		.then(html => {
			res.writeHead(200, 'text/html; charset=UTF-8');
			res.end(html);
		}).catch(err => {
        	console.trace(err);
        });

}).listen(3000);

The Manila module accepts a configuration object with the following optional properties:

root: the absolute path to the root of your app. Defaults to the directory which contains the application entry point.

views: the path to the directory in which to look for views, relative to the root. Defaults to 'views'.

partials: the directory in which to look for partial mnla files to use with <: include ... :> tags, realtive to the root. Defaults to views.

extension: the file extension of your views/partials. Defaults to '.mnla'.

// defaults:
const manila = require('manila')({
	root: path.dirname(require.main.filename),
	views: 'views',
	partials: 'views',
	extension: '.mnla'
});

<:expression:> This tag will be replaced with the HTML-escaped result of evaluating the expression or variable with the current context.

<::expression::> Use two colons instead of one to prevent HTML-escaping of the expression.

<: include path/to/file :> Includes the content of the named file as part of the current template. path/to/file is relative to views/ unless overwritten during configuration.

Manila tags are executed as plain 'ol JavaScript, so there's no template language to learn. While you can use any JavaScript you want, here are some examples:

<: if (expression) { :>
	<p>This markup renders if expression is truthy</p>
<: } else { :>
	<p>This markup renders if expression is falsy</p>
<: } :>

<: list.forEach(item => { :>
	<li><:item:></li>
<: }) :>

<: for (key in obj) { :>
	<li> <:key:> is <:obj[key]:> </li>
<: } :>