How to embed Scala in HTML?

Question

Coming from a background in PHP, I am used to the idea that I can simply embed server-side scripts into my HTML pages. Searching online, I haven't been able to find a simple echo <h1>Hello World</h1>; equivalent in Scala besides using a web framework like Lift. Can I do this with Scala?

Answer 1

See Scalate and PlayFramework

Scalate Scaml is very close to what you want

Scalate supports the following template formats

• Mustache which is a Scala dialect of Mustache for logic-less templates which also work inside the browser using mustache.js
• Scaml which is a Scala dialect of Haml and is very DRY for generating HTML / XHTML
• Jade which is an even more DRY dialect of Scaml for HTML / XHTML markup generation
• SSP which is like Velocity, JSP or Erb from Rails

Answer 2

PHP is an exception in being a language designed to be embedded in an HTML page. Apache has mod_php to do this for you. Scala, like many other languages, requires you to start up a web server to respond to requests and render HTML. You can use frameworks like Lift or Play, or you can make a Servlet-based app and deploy it into any Servlet container.

You could set up an Apache server to run CGI scripts and then insert a .scala file to be run by the scala command - but it would be incredibly slow as it would have to start up the Java VM every time. I wouldn't recommend that for anything other than scratching a mental itch.

Answer 3

Here's how to generate an HTML template with SSP.

Define an object that the template will access for data.

object FunStuff {
  val dinnertime = "eating stuff!"
}

Create a template:

<% import mrpowers.scalate.example.FunStuff  %>
<p>
    My message is "<%= List("hi", "there", "reader!").mkString(" ") %>"
    At dinnertime, I like <%= FunStuff.dinnertime %>
</p>

Render the template:

val sourceDataPath = new java.io.File("./src/test/resources/simple_example.ssp").getCanonicalPath
val engine = new TemplateEngine
println(engine.layout(sourceDataPath))

Here's the result:

<p>
    My message is "hi there reader!"
    At dinnertime, I like eating stuff!
</p>