Larger projects can lead you to use multiple technologies. Say you are using Smarty templates in PHP and want to use/share same templates in Node.js. jSmart is a way to go. jSmart is a port of the Smarty Template Engine to  make it Javascript Templating Engine. jSmart can work in browsers and CommonJS environments like Node.js. I will demonstrate how we can use jSmart in Node.js

1. Install jSmart from NPM Registry.

$ npm install jsmart --save

2. First create the template with some data we are supposed to render. Say
demo.tpl and its contents are:-

Hello {$name}

3. Create demo.js in the same folder which includes jsmart and fs module.

var fs = require(fs);
require('jsmart');

4. Now we will read the content of template file and create jSmart object which compiles our template.

var fs = require(fs);
require('jsmart');
var tpl = fs.readFileSync('./demo.tpl', {encoding: 'utf-8'});
var compiledTpl = jSmart(tpl);

Note:- I’m reading file synchronously for demo purpose. Best is to read file asynchronously. That’s is what the + point of Node.js.

5. We are ready to assign data to the template and print output of the template.

var fs = require(fs);
require('jsmart');
var tpl = fs.readFileSync('./demo.tpl', {encoding: 'utf-8'});
var compiledTpl = jSmart(tpl);
var output = compiledTpl.fetch({name: 'World'});
console.log(output);

6. Now save the file i.e demo.js. After that, you are ready to execute the file and see the output.

$ node demo.js

7. You would see the string “Hello World“.

On the similar lines, you can use all the features of Smarty. You can find documentation at https://github.com/umakantp/jsmart/wiki.

If you clone the jSmart repo from Github, you would find various examples which demonstrate how jSmart works on a browser, node js and using require.js.

Above demo covers a very basic example of how to use in Node Js. You can always request for advanced integration in the comments. I will be happy to put on more integration example.

UPDATE(06/11/2017) :-

jSmart now has plugins which enable you to use jSmart with other frameworks or tools. I have populated a list over here for you of all the available plugins.

Express JS:- https://www.npmjs.com/package/jsmart-express
Webpack:- https://www.npmjs.com/package/jsmart-loader
Grunt:- https://www.npmjs.com/package/grunt-jsmart