Mako Templates for Python

Mako is a template library written in Python. It provides a familiar, non-XML syntax which compiles into Python modules for maximum performance. Mako's syntax and API borrows from the best ideas of many others, including Django templates, Cheetah, Myghty, and Genshi. Conceptually, Mako is an embedded Python (i.e. Python Server Page) language, which refines the familiar ideas of componentized layout and inheritance to produce one of the most straightforward and flexible models available, while also maintaining close ties to Python calling and scoping semantics.

Mako is used by the python.org website as the basis for their site build system (README), as well as by reddit.com for their newly launched beta site. It is the default template language included with the Pylons web framework.

Nutshell:

<%inherit file="base.html"/>
<%
    rows = [[v for v in range(0,10)] for row in range(0,10)]
%>
<table>
    % for row in rows:
        ${makerow(row)}
    % endfor
</table>
   
<%def name="makerow(row)">
    <tr>
    % for name in row:
        <td>${name}</td>\
    % endfor
    </tr>
</%def>

Philosophy:

Python is a great scripting language. Don't reinvent the wheel...your templates can handle it !

Another Templating Language?!

Well, not totally true. Mako is effectively the replacement for the Myghty templating system, and is now the default template language for the Pylons web framework (a framework which originally grew out of Myghty). Compared to Myghty (and Myghty's inspiration HTML::Mason) it's a vastly simplified and totally Python-centric system which is much better suited to the current generation of WSGI frameworks. And it does offer features that aren't found in any other template language.

Features:

• Super-simple API. For basic usage, just one class, Template is needed:

  from mako.template import Template
  print Template("hello ${data}!").render(data="world")

  For filesystem management and template caching, add the TemplateLookup class.
• Insanely Fast. An included bench suite, adapted from a suite included with Genshi, has these results for a simple three-sectioned layout:

  Mako:	1.10 ms		Myghty:	4.52 ms
  Cheetah:	1.10 ms		Genshi:	11.46 ms
  Django:	2.74 ms		Kid:	14.54 ms

  Since a speed test is always a flashpoint for controversy, and you can modify the bench to show different variances, the point here is not that "Mako is faster"; its not meant as a competitive point. The point is, "Mako is as fast as any of the other currently popular approaches".
• Standard template features
  • control structures constructed from real Python code (i.e. loops, conditionals)
  • straight Python blocks, inline or at the module-level
  • plain old includes
• Callable blocks
  • can access variables from their enclosing scope as well as the template's request context
  • can be nested arbitrarily
  • can specify regular Python argument signatures
  • outer-level callable blocks can be called by other templates or controller code (i.e. "method call")
  • Calls to functions can define any number of sub-blocks of content which are accessible to the called function (i.e. "component-call-with-content"). This is the basis for nestable custom tags.
• Inheritance
  • supports "multi-zoned" inheritance - define any number of areas in the base template to be overridden.
  • supports "chaining" style inheritance - call next.body() to call the "inner" content.
  • the full inheritance hierarchy is navigable in both directions (i.e. parent and child) from anywhere in the chain.
  • inheritance is dynamic ! Specify a function instead of a filename to calculate inheritance on the fly for every request.

To get started, visit the documentation and the download page.

Mako is covered by the MIT License.