Considerations for Compiling and Rendering the Asset Model

Compile an asset in the context of a channel to return a flattened string of the asset content. You can use two compiling types:

standard compiling
rendering

Rendering accounts for superContent and design. Use rendering only for user representation and manipulation of content, as opposed to sending and publishing content.

Standard Compiling

IF an asset contains content:
- FOR EACH placeholder block or slot in the content:
  - REPLACE the placeholder with the compiled string from the block or slot
- RETURN replaced content
ELSE:
- IF an asset contains views:
  - IF an asset contains a view for the specified channel:
    - RETURN the compiled channel view
  - ELSE IF an asset contains an HTML view:
    - RETURN the compiled HTML view
  - ELSE:
    - RETURN empty string

Rendering

IF an asset contains content, design, or superContent:
- IF an asset contains superContent and superContent isn’t empty:
  - usedContent = superContent
- ELSE IF an asset contains content and content isn’t empty:
  - usedContent = content
- ELSE IF an asset contains design and design isn’t empty:
  - usedContent = design
- ELSE:
  - RETURN empty string
- FOR EACH placeholder block or slot in the content:
  - REPLACE the placeholder with the rendered string from the block or slot
- RETURN replaced content
ELSE:
- IF an asset contains views:
  - IF an asset contains a view for the specified channel:
    - RETURN the rendered channel view
  - ELSE IF there is an HTML view:
    - RETURN the rendered HTML view
  - ELSE:
    - RETURN empty string

This JavaScript code example creates a full compiler.

1function getReferences(content, type) {
2  var typeMarker = '<div data-type="' + type + '" data-key="';
3  var splitContent = content.split(typeMarker);
4  var results = [];
5  if (splitContent.length > 1) {
6    for (var i = 1; i < splitContent.length; i++) {
7      var endTagMatches = splitContent[i].match(/(\/>)|(>[^<]*<\/div>)/i);
8      var match = endTagMatches[0] || ">";
9      results.push(typeMarker + splitContent[i].split(match)[0] + match);
10    }
11  }
12  return results;
13}
14
15function compile(asset, channel) {
16  asset = asset || {};
17  var content = asset.superContent || asset.content || asset.design;
18  if (content) {
19    ["slot", "block"].forEach(function (type) {
20      var references = getReferences(content, type);
21      var types = type + "s";
22      references.forEach(function (reference) {
23        var refKey = reference.split('data-key="')[1].split('"')[0];
24        if (asset[types] && asset[types][refKey]) {
25          content = content.replace(reference, compile(asset[types][refKey]));
26        } else {
27          console.error("Bad Asset: referenced " + type + " does not exist: " + refKey);
28        }
29      });
30    });
31    return content;
32  } else if (asset.views) {
33    if (asset.views[channel]) {
34      return compile(asset.views[channel], channel);
35    } else if (asset.views.html) {
36      return compile(asset.views.html, channel);
37    }
38  }
39  return "";
40}