Spring Boot and Mustache Tutorial with Examples

What is Mustache?
Some examples of Mustache
Create a Spring Boot project
Model, DAO
Controller, Mustache Template
Run the application

1. What is Mustache?

Mustache is aWeb Template system, which is used in combination with the data of Model layer to create HTML files. It is supported by many languages such as Java, ActionScript, C++, Clojure, CoffeeScript, ColdFusion, PHP, ....

Mustache is described as a logic-less system, because it does not has statements controlling the flow of the program clearly, for example, it has no if/else statement and loop statement, it uses lambda expression and mustache tags instead.

Assume that "employees" is a list. In this context, open & close tag pairs: {{#employees}} & {{/employees}} will be equivalent to a loop in the "employees" list.

The reason it is named"Mustache" is that the syntax of the Mustache usually uses curly brackets {}, like a pair of mustaches.

2. Some examples of Mustache

You will probably meet with some trouble and confusion with the Mustache for its first time of working with it. Below are some examples, which show the oddity of this system.

if/else?

Mustache doesn't simply haveif/else condition statement, therefore, you have to create logic for it.

Java Code:

boolean kiss = true;

boolean hug = true;

boolean slap = false;

Mustache Template:

{{#kiss}}
  Kiss ...
{{/kiss}}

{{#hug}}
  Hug ...
{{/hug}}


{{#slap}}
  Hic Hic ...
{{/slap}}

Result:

Kiss ...
Hug ...

In the Mustache, {{.}} is a special tag. Please look at an example:

If you have the data as follows:

int[] numbers = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};

String string =  "Wheee!";

Mustache Template:

{{# numbers }}
* {{ . }}
{{/ numbers }}

-----

{{# string }}
   {{ . }}
{{/ string }}

The result received:

* 1
* 2
* 3
* 4
* 5

----

Wheee!

3. Create a Spring Boot project

On the Eclipse, create a Spring Boot project:

To be able to use the Mustache for View layer, you need to declare spring-boot-starter-mustache dependency in thepom.xml file:

<dependency>
   <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
   <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-mustache</artifactId>
</dependency>

The full content of the pom.xml file:

pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
    http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>org.o7planning</groupId>
    <artifactId>SpringBootMustache</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>

    <name>SpringBootMustache</name>
    <description>Spring Boot + Groovy</description>

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.0.0.RELEASE</version>
        <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
    </parent>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-mustache</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

SpringBootMustacheApplication.java

package org.o7planning.sbmustache;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringBootMustacheApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(SpringBootMustacheApplication.class, args);
    }
    
}

4. Model, DAO

Employee.java

package org.o7planning.sbmustache.model;

import java.util.Date;

public class Employee {

    private Long empId;
    private String empNo;
    private String empName;
    private Date hireDate;

    public Employee() {

    }

    public Employee(Long empId, String empNo,
            String empName, Date hireDate) {
        this.empId = empId;
        this.empNo = empNo;
        this.empName = empName;
        this.hireDate = hireDate;
    }

    public Long getEmpId() {
        return empId;
    }

    public void setEmpId(Long empId) {
        this.empId = empId;
    }

    public String getEmpNo() {
        return empNo;
    }

    public void setEmpNo(String empNo) {
        this.empNo = empNo;
    }

    public String getEmpName() {
        return empName;
    }

    public void setEmpName(String empName) {
        this.empName = empName;
    }

    public Date getHireDate() {
        return hireDate;
    }

    public void setHireDate(Date hireDate) {
        this.hireDate = hireDate;
    }
    
}

EmployeeDAO.java

package org.o7planning.sbmustache.dao;

import java.sql.Date;
import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import org.o7planning.sbmustache.model.Employee;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository;

@Repository
public class EmployeeDAO {

    public List<Employee> getEmployees()  {
        
        Date hireDate1= Date.valueOf(LocalDate.parse("2000-12-11"));
        Employee e1= new Employee(1L, "E01", "Tom", hireDate1);
        
        Date hireDate2= Date.valueOf(LocalDate.parse("2001-12-21"));
        Employee e2= new Employee(2L, "E02", "Jerry", hireDate2);
        
        List<Employee> list= new ArrayList<Employee>();
        list.add(e1);
        list.add(e2);
        return list;        
    }    
    
}

5. Controller, Mustache Template

MainController.java

package org.o7planning.sbmustache.controller;

import java.util.List;

import org.o7planning.sbmustache.dao.EmployeeDAO;
import org.o7planning.sbmustache.model.Employee;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.ui.Model;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;

@Controller
public class MainController {

    @Autowired
    private EmployeeDAO employeeDAO;

    
    @RequestMapping("/")
    public String handleRequest(Model model) {

        List<Employee> employees = employeeDAO.getEmployees();
        model.addAttribute("employees", employees);
        return "employee";
    }

}

Create an employee.mustache file located in the resources/templates folder of the project.

Note: If you use Spring Boot < 2.x , then Mustache Template files must have the ending in html. Thus, you need to create anemployee.html file.

employee.mustache

<html>
<head>
<title>Spring Boot Mustache</title>
<style>
table {
    border-collapse: collapse;
}

table, td, th {
    border: 1px solid #999;
    padding: 5px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>Employees</h2>
    <table>
        <tr>
            <th>Emp Id</th>
            <th>Emp No</th>
            <th>Emp Name</th>
            <th>Hire Date</th>
        </tr>

        {{#employees}}
        <tr>
            <td>{{empId}}</td>
            <td>{{empNo}}</td>
            <td>{{empName}}</td>
            <td>{{hireDate}}</td>
        </tr>
        {{/employees}}

    </table>
</body>
</html>

The Spring Boot 2.x automatically configures the Mustache with the following default properties:

application.properties (Default by Spring Boot)

spring.mustache.prefix=classpath:/templates/
spring.mustache.suffix=.mustache

The drawing describes the flow of the application and the relationship between the Controller and Mustache View:

6. Run the application

Right click on the Project, select:

Run As/Spring Boot App

Then, access the address:

http://localhost:8080