hugo/docs/content/templates/ace.md

---
aliases:
- /doc/templates/ace
- /layout/templates/ace
- /layout/ace/
date: 2014-04-20
linktitle: Ace templates
menu:
  main:
    parent: layout
next: /templates/functions
prev: /templates/go-templates
title: Hugo Templates
weight: 17
---

In addition to [Go templates](/templates/go-templates) and Amber[^needs-doc] templates, Hugo supports the powerful Ace templates.

For template documentation, follow the links from the [Ace project](https://github.com/yosssi/ace). 

* Ace templates must be named with the ace-suffix, e.g. `list.ace`
* It's possible to use both Go templates and Ace templates side-by-side, and include one into the other
* Full Go template syntax support, including all the useful helper funcs
* Partials can be included both with the Ace and the Go template syntax:
	* `= include partials/foo.html .`[^ace-theme]
	* `{{ partial "foo" . }}`


One noticeable difference between Ace and the others is the inheritance support through [base and inner templates](https://github.com/yosssi/ace/tree/master/examples/base_inner_template).

In Hugo the base template will be chosen in the following order:

```
1. <current-path>/<template-name>-baseof.ace, e.g. list-baseof.ace
2. <current-path>/baseof.ace
3. _default/<template-name>-baseof.ace, e.g. list-baseof.ace.
4. _default/baseof.ace	
5. <themedir>/layouts/_default/<template-name>-baseof.ace
6. <themedir>/layouts/_default/baseof.ace
```

In the above, `current-path` is where the corresponding inner template lives, `list.ace`, `single.ace`, `index.ace` ...

```
.:
index.ace

./blog:
single.ace
baseof.ace

./_default:
baseof.ace  list.ace  single.ace  single-baseof.ace
```

Some examples for the layout files above:

* Home page: `./index.ace` +  `./_default/baseof.ace` 
* Single page in the `blog` section: `./blog/single.ace` +  `./blog/baseof.ace`
* Single page in another section: `./_default/single.ace` +  `./_default/single-baseof.ace`
* Taxonomy page in any section: `./_default/list.ace` +  `./_default/baseof.ace`

**Note:** In most cases one `baseof.ace` in `_default` will suffice.
**Note:** An Ace template without a reference to a base section, e.g. `= content`, will be handled as a standalone template.


[^ace-theme]: Note that the `html` suffix is needed, even if the filename is suffixed `ace`. This does not work from inside a theme, see [issue 763](https://github.com/spf13/hugo/issues/763).
[^needs-doc]: Needs documentation! Contribution welcomed, see [issue 1064](https://github.com/spf13/hugo/issues/1064).