Handlebars with Node.js, error on precompilation

Question

I have been using handlebars.js client-side for a while, and I wanted to get into using pre-compiled templates. I followed the general instructions I could find on the web, including installing it on Node.js:

npm install handlebars -g

Next, I go to my Node.js directory and try to compile a simple template:

handlebars test.handlebars -f test.js

And I get an error (command prompt, mind you and i'm sorry):

C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\handlebars\lib\handlebars.js:1
(function (exports, require, module, __filename, __dirname) { import Handlebar
                                                          ^^^^^^
SyntaxError: Unexpected reserved word
    at Module._compile (module.js:439:25)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:364:17)
    at require (module.js:380:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\handlebars\bin\handlebars:105:18)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)

I go to this handlebars.js file that errored and sure enough the code definitely doesn't look like javascript:

import Handlebars from "./handlebars.runtime";

// Compiler imports
module AST from "./handlebars/compiler/ast";
import { parser as Parser, parse } from "./handlebars/compiler/base";
// ... etc.

I don't really know what this is, so I don't know what I did wrong or what my problem is.

yeah, but I just did the regular install... it should just 'work', there's no coffeescript requirements in handlebars' docs. — dthree

Dmitry Azaraev Dmitry Azaraev · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-04T12:22:36

Looks like lib folder contains not processed ES6-like modules. So probably it was be not processed with es6-module-transpiler. I'm open issue https://github.com/wycats/handlebars.js/issues/642 also exist similar issue https://github.com/wycats/handlebars.js/issues/643 .

I'm workaround this by installing es6-module-transpiler manually process files, and quick fix remain errors (something around with ["default"] exports).

Handlebars with Node.js, error on precompilation

1 Answers