How can you detect if a website uses Handlebars?
Detecting the usage of Handlebars on a website involves checking for specific indicators that are characteristic of Handlebars templating.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
- Open the Page Source: Right-click on the webpage and select “View Page Source” or press
Ctrl+U
(Windows) orCmd+Option+U
(Mac) to open the page’s source code. - Search for Handlebars Template Indication: Use
Ctrl+F
(Windows) orCmd+F
(Mac) to open the search function and look for the following keywords:x-handlebars-template
: If you find a tag like<script id="templateId" type="x-handlebars-template">
, it indicates that Handlebars is being used for templating.
- Check for Handlebars Library: Look for the inclusion of the Handlebars library in the source code. Search for the following line that indicates the library is loaded:
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/handlebars.js/<version>/handlebars.min.js"></script>
, where<version>
is the specific version of Handlebars used.
- Look for Handlebars Syntax: Search for Handlebars-specific syntax in the source code. Look for occurrences of:
{{variableName}}
: This is how Handlebars outputs variables.{{#if condition}}
: This is the syntax used for conditional statements.{{#each items}}
: This syntax indicates iteration over an array.
- Check for Template Helpers: Look for JavaScript code that defines helpers using the
Handlebars.registerHelper
function. This could look like:Handlebars.registerHelper('helperName', function(arg) { ... });
- Examine the Network Tab: Open the browser’s developer tools and navigate to the Network tab. Reload the page and look for any files (e.g., `.handlebars`, `.hbs`, or `.js`) that may contain Handlebars templates.
- Inspect Inline Scripts: Examine any inline
<script>
tags that may contain template definitions using Handlebars syntax.