Thanks for the example @doowb, your code did work but not for what I was trying to do. I really wanted something more complicated but I simplified my question not knowing it would be an issue. The code you provided worked (I think after a slight tweak) for a simple render of a template, but my templates use helpers such as #each and #if which caused the issue. Where the helpers were in my template, I ended up getting async placeholders. For example: <a $ASYNC$1$3...>
I later learned this has to do with how partials are rendered. Understanding that lead me to subexpressions and the below solution.
Keeping my example above with some modifications, this is how I was able to merge partials.
First, I simplified the placeholder in text.json to basically a unique ID, instead of trying to render the partial there.
On the hbs template that I'm rendering to, such as a page or whatever, I included the insert helper with 3 arguments. The first two are subexpressions, each return a flattened partials as strings. The key here is that subexpressions process and return a result before finishing the current process with the helper. So two flattened templates are then sent to the helper along with the placeholder to search for.
The helper uses the third argument in a regex pattern. It searches the second argument (flattened parent template) for this pattern. When found, it replaces each instance of the pattern with the first argument (yes its a global fine replace).
So, the flattened child string gets inserted into parent each time placeholder is found.
First argument
(partial "link" link.apple)
Returns
'<a href="http://www.apple.com" target="_blank">apple</a>'
Second argument
(partial "text" text.text-example)
Returns
'<p class="text font--variant">If you need a computer, go to {{linkToApple}}.</p>'
Third argument
'linkToApple'
text.json
{
"text-example": {
"elm": "quote",
"classes": [
"text",
"font--variant"
],
"text": "If you need a computer, go to {{linkToApple}}."
}
}
text.hbs
<{{elm}} class="{{#eachIndex classes}}{{#isnt index 0}} {{/isnt}}{{item}}{{/eachIndex}}">{{text}}</{{elm}}>
compile.hbs
{{insert (partial "link" link.apple) (partial "text" text) 'linkToApple' }}
compile.html
<p class="text font--variant">If you need a computer, go to <a href="http://www.apple.com" target="_blank">apple</a>.</p>
gulpfile.js
app.helper('insert', function(child, parent, name) {
const merged = parent.replace(new RegExp('\{\{(?:\\s+)?(' + name + ')(?:\\s+)?\}\}', 'g'), child);
const html = new handlebars.SafeString(merged);
return html;
});
Hope this helps someone else. I know this can use improvements, I'll try to update it when I get back to cleaning up my gulp file.