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The Mako templating language

Docassemble uses Mako for formatting throughout the interview file. Mako is also used inside Markdown templates.

Inside docx template files, you will instead use the Jinja templating language.

You can read a full reference of Mako at the project website.

Mako statements allow you to:

  1. Insert variables
  2. Use conditional text
  3. Use control structures to display repeated variables

Insert variables​

To insert a variable into your document, start with a $ and surround it with curly braces, like this: ${ variable_name }.

It's also possible to include Python code in the place of the variable name. For example, if you had assigned the value of my_variable as below:

my_variable = "lowercase name"

Then you could use the .capitalize() method of a string inside Mako tags to make sure that it started with a capital letter, regardless of how the user entered it inside your application:

Dear ${ my_variable.capitalize() }:

    I am writing to tell you...

Use conditional text​

You start conditional text with a % symbol at the beginning of the line. If you want to include a literal % symbol instead, use %%. Just like in Python, you need to include a : at the end of the conditional. The text underneath doesn't need to be indented.

% if person.age_in_years() > 18:
You are an adult
% else:
You are a child
% endif

Use control structures​

Control structures start the same way as conditional statements, beginning with a % symbol at the start of the line.

% for fruit in fruits:
${fruit}
% endfor