Are there Application scope variables in Node js - node.js

I wanted to know are there any application scope variables that can be accessed anywhere in the whole application.
Since I want to add data to my HTML tags using javascript, I need to transfer/get data from the server.js to the index.html

To transfer data from server.js to index.html you don't need to create global variables. You need to use a templating engine: pug, ejs or any other engine.
Just pass the data along with html file in the res.render() function and use templating syntax to display the data at the page.
Router code:
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.render('index', { title: 'Hey', message: 'Hello there!'});
});
Pug code:
html
head
title= title //Hey
body
h1= message //Hello there!
ejs code:
<html>
<head> <%= title %> </head>
<body>
<h1> <%= message %> </h1>
</body>
</html>

Related

Ejs doesn't load when I call a function from another file

Basicly I want to run a function when I clicked the button, but it works when I started the server and go to localhost one time, here's what's supposed to happen, after that localhost page doesn't load. (Unable to connect error)
If I remove the function there is no problem. How can I get it to work only when I click the button ?
Many thanks.
My func.js
const mongoose = require("mongoose");
const axios = require('axios');
async function func() {
//MyCodes
}
module.exports = {
func: func
}
My index.ejs
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<button type="button" onClick= <%= func.func() %> >Click</button>
//Other codes are independent the button
</body>
</html>
My res.render codeblocks in app.js
var func = require('./func');
app.get("/", (req, res) => {
res.render('index', {
cName: name,
symbol: symbol,
len: finds[0].result.length,
cPrice: price,
cDate: date,
func:func
});
});
});
})
You are misunderstanding. You cannot call an internal nodejs function(backend) from the html (frontend). If your frontend need to execute some backend operation like query to mongo, you have these options:
#1 client side rendering (Modern)
This is the most used in the modern world: Ajax & Api
your backend exposes a rest endpoints like /products/search who recieve a json and return another json
this endpoints should be consumed with javascript on some js file of your frontend:
html
<html lang="en">
<head>
<script src="./controller.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<button type="button" onClick="search();" >Click</button>
</body>
</html>
controller.js
function search(){
$.ajax({
url:"./api/products/search",
type:"POST",
data:JSON.stringify(fooObject),
contentType:"application/json; charset=utf-8",
dataType:"json",
success: function(response){
...
}
})
}
Note 1: controller.js contains javascript for browser not for backend : nodejs
Note 2: ejs is only used to return the the initial html, so it is better to use another frameworks like:react, angular, vue
#2 server side rendering (Legacies)
In this case, ajax and js for browser are not strictly required.
Any event on your html should use <form> to trigger an entire page reload
You backend receives any parameter from the , make some operations like mongo queries and returns html instead json, using res.render in your case
Note
Ejs is for SSR = server side rendering, so add ajax could be complex for novices. In this case, use the option #2
You cannot use a nodejs function (javascript for server) in the client side (javascript for browser). Maybe some workaround are able to do that but, don't mix different things.

Why res.send( string ) download a file

I have an app where I want to render static html with express.
I know about res.sendFile() but that is not what I want to use. I want to load my files using fs and send them using res.send()
I do something like this :
fileFoo = fs.readFileSync('./html/foo.html', 'utf-8');
fileBar = fs.readFileSync('./html/bar.html', 'utf-8');
app = express()
app.get('/foo', (req, res) => res.send(fileFoo));
app.get('/foo/bar', (req, res) => res.send(fileBar));
With 2 very simple html files
foo.html
<html>
<head>
<title>FOO</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>FOO</h1>
bar
</body>
</html>
bar.html
<html>
<head>
<title>BAR</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>BAR</h1>
</body>
</html>
When I go to /foo I got a HTML rendered.
If I click on bar I do not get a new HTML page rendered but I got a file "bar" with no extension downloaded. The file of course content the HTML page.
What is happening ?
UPDATE :
I am actually using a router, not direct app.
And I think this 'download' occure only when I try to reach
router.get('/', (res, req) => res.send(fileBar));

Express only serving css file in main page

I am learning node and using expressjs the problem is that the css file is only working on the main page and not any other page following is the code for the app:
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
// assets
app.use(express.static("public"));
// simple file testing
app.get("/anything/:stuff", function(req, res){
var stuff = req.params.stuff;
res.render("love.ejs", {stuff: stuff});
});
// posts page
var books = [
{title:"Harry Potter",author:"JK Rowling",editions:7},
{title:"Peere Kamil",author:"Humaira Saeed",editions:4},
{title:"Mushaf",author:"Abdullah khan",editions:2}
];
app.get("/books", function(req, res){
res.render("books.ejs",{books:books});
});
app.listen(3000, process.env.IP, function(){
console.log("Serving Now!");
});
The following is the code for the page where it is not working.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="app.css" />
<title>demo app</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>You fell in love with : <%= stuff %> </h1>
<%
if(stuff.toUpperCase() === "WAQAS"){ %>
<P>GOOD CHOICE HE IS THE BEST</p>
<% } %>
<p>P.S This is the love.ejs file</p>
</body>
</html>
The file is under public directory.
Use an absolute URL for the CSS file, so the browser doesn't look for it relative to the current URL:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/app.css" />
Explanation: say that you open the URL /anything/helloworld in your browser. When your HTML contains just app.css, without the leading slash in front of it, the browser will try and load /anything/app.css (because without that slash it's relative to the current URL), which doesn't point to your CSS file.
When you add the leading slash, express.static will be able to find the CSS file in public/.

Compiling Handlebars templates to html files

I'm working on a scaffolding project for simple, no cms, html sites. Basically, the site runs off a simple node server, running express & handlebars, with handlebars .hbs template files and a main.hbs as the main layout. This is all for development purposes. When the site is ready to be pushed up somewhere, I want a build task that will render it into a completely static html site.
My Problem: I can't figure out how to get the html of a fully rendered page, from my handlebars templates, loaded into a node module I can then create HTML files from using the module like a build task eg. node Build.js. Here is some code to show you, basically, the main layout and home layout need to be compiled then given to me as a js string.
PS. I have the regular handlebars package aswell, I'm just using express-handlebars for the server part.
server.js (irrelevant parts taken out)
// -----------------------------
// Dependancies
// -----------------------------
// https://www.npmjs.com/package/express
var express = require('express');
// https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-handlebars
var exphbs = require('express-handlebars');
// -----------------------------
// Template Engine
// -----------------------------
// Specify template engine & it's config
app.exp.engine('.hbs', exphbs({ extname: '.hbs', defaultLayout: 'main' }));
// Set the engine defined above
app.exp.set('view engine', '.hbs');
// -----------------------------
// Apply the routes to our application
// -----------------------------
app.exp.use(express.static(__dirname), app.router);
// -----------------------------
// Routes
// -----------------------------
// Home Route
app.router.get('/', getRoute);
// Route Controller
app.router.get('/:page', getRoute);
// Formats page data and renders the template
function getRoute(req, res) {
// If homepage, set some data
if(req.url === '/') req.params.page = 'home';
// Capitalize the route param for the page title
var title = req.params.page.substr(0,1).toUpperCase() + req.params.page.substr(1);
// Render the view
res.render(req.params.page, {
name: app.name,
title: title,
class: req.params.page
});
}
app.exp.listen(app.port);
Main layout (the standard html guts, the {{body}} data is where the template files are loaded into)
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>{{title}} - {{name}}</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1,maximum-scale=1,user-scalable=no">
<meta charset="utf-8">
</head>
<body class="page-{{class}}">
<!-- Navigation -->
{{> nav}}
<!-- Page Content -->
<main>
{{{body}}}
</main>
</body>
</html>
And just for example, the home template
<div>
<p>
This is the homepage.
</p>
</div>

Express & EJS - layout.ejs not used

Im trying out EJS as a view engine with Express. It seems that my layout.ejs is not used. I have two views index.ejs and layout.ejs both in my 'views' folder. It seems that index.js is rendered but layout.ejs is not. The layout.ejs file should be including a CSS file but when the page is rendered in the browser this is not there. Any test test text that I place in the layout.ejs file is not output with the response.
Am I missing an additional configuration step?
Thanks!
My server.js code:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
app.get('/', function(req, res){
res.render('index.ejs', {title: 'EJS Engine'});
});
app.listen(8080);
In my layout.ejs I am linking to a single css file which resides in the public folder.
layout.ejs:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title><%= title %></title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="main.css">
</head>
<body>
<%- body %>
</body>
</html>
index.ejs
<div id="container">
index.html
</div>
Here's the module you need:
https://www.npmjs.org/package/express-ejs-layouts
Do the following:
npm install express-ejs-layouts // install the layout module from the command line
var express = require("express")
,path = require('path')
,fs = require('fs')
,expressLayouts=require("express-ejs-layouts") // add this requirement
, app = express();
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(expressLayouts); // add this use()
app.use(express.static(__dirname));
Now the ejs engine should use your layout.
app.set('view options', { layout:'layout.ejs' });
Place layout.ejs into your views folder.
Alternately you can place layout.ejs into views/layouts folder and then use
app.set('view options', { layout:'layouts/layout.ejs' });
I have a similar issue. In my case I would rather use Jade but I have a requirement for a more "html" style template engine for a particular project. At first I considered express-partials or ejs-locals (as mentioned in a comment by Jonathan Lonowski) or even using html via the pipe or dot syntax within Jade templates (see here for more information about that option and this SO post). I am not able to introduce the additional dependencies for express-partials and ejs-locals into this project. These two projects do look good and might meet your needs.
If you do not want to use these projects, you can do something like the following:
views/layout-head.ejs
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The title</title>
</head>
<body>
views/layout-foot.ejs
</body>
</html>
views/index.ejs (or any other page)
<% include layout-head %>
This is the index page - <%= title %>
<% include layout-foot %>
routes/index.js
exports.index = function(req, res){
res.render('index', { title: 'Express' });
}
This is not an optimal solution but it works. Most of my application will be a single page app and I have some other restrictions I have to work within so this works for my needs. This may not the best solution in many cases - especially if you have complex and/or changing layouts.

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