--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/globalneighbors/template.py	Sat Jun 24 15:47:59 2017 -0700
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+"""
+functionality for `jinja` templates
+"""
+
+import os
+from jinja2 import Template
+
+# default template location
+here = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+template_dir = os.path.join(here, 'templates')
+
+
+class TemplateLoader(object):
+
+    def __init__(self, template_dir=template_dir):
+        assert os.path.exists(template_dir)
+        self.template_dir = template_dir
+
+    def load(self, template):
+        path = os.path.join(self.template_dir, template)
+        assert os.path.exists(path)
+        with open(path) as f:
+            return Template(f.read())