The typical way to include the connect assets file is
!= css("main")
That is with .jade though. I am using handlebars and I have no clue how I can add the file?
I am using node-sass as well.
Just guessing, something like this works (see blog post):
var connectAssets = require("connect-assets")();
app.use(connectAssets);
var hbs = require('hbs');
hbs.registerHelper('css', function() {
var css = connectAssets.options.helperContext.css.apply(this, arguments);
return new hbs.SafeString(css);
});
Related
I want to convert some html page to pdf via wkhtmltopdf. However, the html page I want to convert to pdf is dynamically generated using handlebars.
So I think one solution maybe to generate the html page via handlebars but to a file (html file). Then, convert that file to pdf using hkhtmltopdf, then allow the user to, somehow, download the pdf.
So, my question is: how can I render the (handlebars) dynamically generated html page to a file?
Thanks and bye ...
Simple example for create file.
var Handlebars = require('handlebars');
var source = "<p>Hello, my name is {{name}}. I am from {{hometown}}. I have " +
"{{kids.length}} kids:</p>" +
"<ul>{{#kids}}<li>{{name}} is {{age}}</li>{{/kids}}</ul>";
var template = Handlebars.compile(source);
var data = { "name": "Alan", "hometown": "Somewhere, TX",
"kids": [{"name": "Jimmy", "age": "12"}, {"name": "Sally", "age": "4"}]};
var result = template(data);
var fs = require('fs');
fs.writeFile("test.html", result, function(err) {
if(err) {
return console.log(err);
}
});
Using express-handlebars, you should use the advanced mode and create an instance of it like in this example.
The proper way would be to create a view file (like you probably already have per you question) and use the express handlebars instance to render it:
// init code
var exphbs = require('express-handlebars');
var hbs = exphbs.create({
defaultLayout: 'your-layout-name',
helpers: require("path-to-your-helpers-if-any"),
});
app.engine('.file-extention-you-use', hbs.engine);
app.set('view engine', '.file-extention-you-use');
// ...then, in the router
hbs.render('full-path-to-view',conext, options).then(function(hbsTemplate){
// hbsTemplate contains the rendered html, do something with it...
});
HTH
Code above from Alex works perfect. However, my confusion was: I was using 'express-handlebars' and not 'handlebars'. Now, what I can understand is Express-Handlebars is an implementation of Handlebars for an Express application, which I´m using. I just didn't find a way to use the 'compile()' method in Express-Handlebars, so I ended up installing Handlebars (standalone) and used it to compile my (html) template and save the result to disk, just as Alex explained above.
In summary:
1) I know Express-Handlebars is Handlebars for Express app.
2) I don't know how to use "compile()" method just from express-handlebars, so I ended up installing Handlebars (from npm) and using it on the server to produce my html file (from template) and save it to disk.
3) Of course I installed and use Express-Handlebars everywhere to serve my pages in my Express app; just installed Handlebars to produce my html (in the server) with "compile()" method and save the result to disk.
Hope this is understandable. Thanks again and bye ...
I have the following code in my server.js
var cddata = [];
body.rows.forEach(function(doc) {
cddata.push([{id: doc.id, name: doc.key, text:doc.value.Time, group: 1}]);
});
response.render('timeline', {cddata: JSON.stringify(cddata)});
and I have the following in my Jade view file
script(src='vis/dist/vis.js')
link(rel="stylesheet", href="vis/dist/vis.css", type="text/css")
script.
//alert(cddata);
var options = {};
var data = new vis.DataSet(cddata);
var container = document.getElementById('visualization');
new vis.Timeline(container, data, options);
However, nothing related to the chart is rendered. I presume the object is not correctly passed to the jade file. Please help!
Also, is there a way to verify the incoming object in Jade? Alerts dont seem to work.
thanks
The <script> in your jade is a browser side script so won't be able to access variables in the templates generation scope. You'll need to output your data as JSON and read it in using browser side JavaScript, something like this:
script(src='vis/dist/vis.js')
link(rel="stylesheet", href="vis/dist/vis.css", type="text/css")
script.
var chartData = JSON.parse('#{cddata}')
var options = {};
var data = new vis.DataSet(chartData);
var container = document.getElementById('visualization');
new vis.Timeline(container, data, options);
After much deliberation, the following worked to pass object from node server to client side server scripting on Jade file.
on the server.js, where dbdata is an array of JSON objects
response.render('timeline', {dbdata:dbdata});
On the jade file,
script.
var chartData = !{JSON.stringify(dbdata)};
Thanks,
Usually you render a Jade page in a route like this:
app.get('/page', function(req, res, next){
res.render('page.jade');
});
But I want to serve all Jade pages (automatically rendered), just like how one would serve static HTML
app.use(express.static('public'))
Is there a way to do something similar for Jade?
"static" means sending existing files unchanged directly from disk to the browser. Jade can be served this way but that is pretty unusual. Usually you want to render jade to HTML on the server which by definition is not "static", it's dynamic. You do it like this:
app.get('/home', function (req, res) {
res.render('home'); // will render home.jade and send the HTML
});
If you want to serve the jade itself for rendering in the browser, just reference it directly in the url when loading it into the browser like:
$.get('/index.jade', function (jade) {
//...
});
https://github.com/runk/connect-jade-static
Usage
Assume the following structure of your project:
/views
/partials
/file.jade
Let's make jade files from /views/partials web accessable:
var jadeStatic = require('connect-jade-static');
app = express();
app.configure(function() {
app.use(jadeStatic({
baseDir: path.join(__dirname, '/views/partials'),
baseUrl: '/partials',
jade: { pretty: true }
}));
});
Now, if you start your web server and request /views/partials/file.html in browser you
should be able see the compiled jade template.
Connect-jade-static is good, but not the perfect solution for me.
To begin with, here are the reasons why I needed jade:
My app is a single page app, there are no HTMLs generated from templates at runtime. Yet, I am using jade to generate HTML files because:
Mixins: lots of repeated / similar code in my HTML is shortened by the use of mixins
Dropdowns: I know, lots of people use ng-repeat to fill the options in a select box. This is a waste of CPU when the list is static, e.g., list of countries. The right thing to do is have the select options filled in within the HTML or partial. But then, a long list of options makes the HTML / jade hard to read. Also, very likely, the list of countries is already available elsewhere, and it doesn’t make sense to duplicate this list.
So, I decided to generate most of my HTML partials using jade at build time. But, this became a pain during development, because of the need to re-build HTMLs when the jade file changes. Yes, I could have used connect-jade-static, but I really don’t want to generate the HTMLs at run time — they are indeed static files.
So, this is what I did:
Added a 'use' before the usual use of express.static
Within this, I check for the timestamps of jade and the corresponding html file
If the jade file is newer, regenerate the html file
Call next() after the regeneration, or immediately, if regeneration is not required.
next() will fall-through to express.static, where the generated HTML will be served
Wrap the ‘use’ around a “if !production” condition, and in the build scripts, generate all the HTML files required.
This way, I can also use all the goodies express.static (like custom headers) provides and still use jade to generate these.
Some code snippets:
var express = require('express');
var fs = require('fs')
var jade = require('jade');
var urlutil = require('url');
var pathutil = require('path');
var countries = require('./countries.js');
var staticDir = 'static'; // really static files like .css and .js
var staticGenDir = 'static.gen'; // generated static files, like .html
var staticSrcDir = 'static.src'; // source for generated static files, .jade
if (process.argv[2] != 'prod') {
app.use(‘/static', function(req, res, next) {
var u = urlutil.parse(req.url);
if (pathutil.extname(u.pathname) == '.html') {
var basename = u.pathname.split('.')[0];
var htmlFile = staticGenDir + basename + '.html';
var jadeFile = staticSrcDir + basename + '.jade';
var hstat = fs.existsSync(htmlFile) ? fs.statSync(htmlFile) : null;
var jstat = fs.existsSync(jadeFile) ? fs.statSync(jadeFile) : null;
if ( jstat && (!hstat || (jstat.mtime.getTime() > hstat.mtime.getTime())) ) {
var out = jade.renderFile(jadeFile, {pretty: true, countries: countries});
fs.writeFile(htmlFile, out, function() {
next();
});
} else {
next();
}
} else {
next();
}
});
}
app.use('/static', express.static(staticDir)); // serve files from really static if exists
app.use('/static', express.static(staticGenDir)); // if not, look in generated static dir
In reality, I have a js file containing not just countries, but various other lists shared between node, javascript and jade.
Hope this helps someone looking for an alternative.
I have a "partial" template that I want to use both client-side and server-side.
Is there some method or filter or something that's very similar to include except that instead of executing the template immediately, it returns a client-compiled function which I could then assign to a JS variable and use throughout my script?
At present, I'm doing this:
exports.list = function(req, res){
res.render('file/list', {
...
fileItemTemplate: jade.compile(fs.readFileSync(path.join(req.app.get('views'),'file','file-item.jade')), {client: true})
});
};
And then in my template I have:
ul#folder-list.thumbnails
each file in files
include file-item
...
script(type='text/javascript')
var fileItemTemplate = !{fileItemTemplate};
And in this way I can render some items to HTML on page-load, and then add some more in later by rendering the partial as data comes in.
This works, but it doesn't feel very DRY because I have to read in the file, and deal with filepaths and stuff in the route, and then essentially redeclare the exact same variable client-side.
Is there a nice way of doing this?
Something like this would be ideal:
script(type='text/javascript')
var fileItemTemplate = !{compile file-item};
A possible solution could be JadeAsset. See also the discussion here.
You can hook assets into Express:
assets.on('complete', function() {
var app = express.createServer();
app.configure(function() {
app.use(assets); // that's all you need to do
});
app.listen(8000);
});
To create your Jade assets:
var assets = new AssetRack([
new rack.JadeAsset({
url: '/templates.js',
dirname: __dirname + '/templates'
})
]);
To use MomentJS in views/custom.ejs, what is the correct way (if any)?
Server side
routes/index etc we can easily use require('moment'); etc and it works fine.
Server Side (EJS views)
views/custome.ejs, something like <% var m = require('moment'); %> doesn't work
I am using ExpressJS with EJS as the template engine.
I found another way of doing this, and I think it has some advantages.
Don't polute your code exporting filters.
Access any method without the need to export them all.
Better ejs usage (no | pipes).
On your controller, or view.js do this:
var moment = require('moment');
exports.index = function(req, res) {
// send moment to your ejs
res.render('index', { moment: moment });
}
Now you can use moment inside your ejs:
<html>
<h1><%= moment().fromNow() %></h1>
</html>
I'm not an Node expert, so if anyone see something bad on doing this, let me know! :)
One more option:
This way you are setting the moment variable to a local available to all scripts in any EJS page on your site.
In your "index.js" (or "app.js") file do this: (after you have set up your 'app' with Express)
var moment = require('moment');
var shortDateFormat = "ddd # h:mmA"; // this is just an example of storing a date format once so you can change it in one place and have it propagate
app.locals.moment = moment; // this makes moment available as a variable in every EJS page
app.locals.shortDateFormat = shortDateFormat;
Then in your EJS file you can refer to moment (and shortDateFormat) as variables like this:
<%= moment(Date()).format(shortDateFormat) %>
Perhaps this is slightly more elegant?
var moment = require('moment');
app.locals.moment = moment;
Use in the view:
<%= moment(myDateValue).fromNow() %>
Now you can simply use moment in your EJS files.
I use moment on the server side with ejs. I wrote an ejs filter function that will return fromNow.
npm install moment
./views/page.ejs
<span class="created_at"><%=: item.created_at | fromNow %></span>
./routes/page.js
var ejs = require('ejs')
, moment = require('moment');
ejs.filters.fromNow = function(date){
return moment(date).fromNow()
}
You can create the function and attach it to the app.locals. and use it in the ejs template on the server side.
In your routes file you do
../routes/page.js
var ejs = require('ejs')
, moment = require('moment');
app.locals.fromNow = function(date){
return moment(date).fromNow();
}
../views/page.ejs
<span class="created_at"><%= fromNow(item.created_at) %></span>
Just remember to have moment added to to your package.json file
How about passing down require like this:
res.render('index', { require: require });
You might need to tweak to maintain the path:
res.render('index', { require: module => require(module /* here you may insert path correction */) });
Obviously this works with Node (backend) only.
The server side (EJS views) which you mentioned above is running on browser and not on your server. You cannot use require because browsers cannot understand it. You need to import the moment.js to use it
<script src="/js/moment.min.js"></script>
also i think it is good idea if you want you can add a middle-ware where you can add anything you want to the theme layer including user,config and moment:
// config, user, moment to the theme layer
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
// grab reference of render
var _render = res.render;
// override logic
res.render = function (view, options, fn) {
// extend config and continue with original render
options = options || {};
options.config = config;
options.moment = moment;
if (req.user && req.user.toJSON) {
options.user = req.user.toJSON();
}
_render.call(this, view, options, fn);
}
next();
});
I wrote a helpers to return moment for using on ejs view and layouts.
./helpers/utils/get-moment.js
const moment = require('moment');
module.exports = {
friendlyName: 'formatMoney',
description: 'format money number.',
inputs: {},
sync: true,
exits: {},
fn: function (inputs, exits) {
return exits.success(moment);
}
};
Then using:
const moment = sails.helpers.utils.getMoment();
As of Node v12.8.3, it seems that you can pass require directly to EJS templates, i.e. this works:
const ejs = require('ejs')
let renderedHTML = ejs.render(`<% const moment = require('moment') %>`, { require })