Passing objects between nodejs and jade - node.js

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,

Related

Server Side rendering in mongo with dust

Is it possible to fetch data from MongoDB and render a html template on the server side itself for a node-js project?
As of now in my serverside js file I've done the following.
//Failing array will be populated by a db.find later on.
var failing = [
{ name: "Pop" },
{ name: "BOB" }
];
/*Now i have to send a mail from the server for which I'm using nodemailer.
Where do i store the template ? This is what I've done in the same file */
var template = "<body>{#failing} <p>{.name}</p> {/failing}</body>"
// Add this as the body of the mail and send it.
I'm not sure how to render the data and how to get it displayed. I'm aware storing the template in the variable isn't right but I'm not sure what else to do.
If your template is that short, you can store it in a variable without problem. Obviously, you can store it in a file also.
Let's say you decide to store it in a file index.dust:
<body>{#failing} <p>{.name}</p> {/failing}</body>
Now, in your node controller you need to load the file and generate the html content from it:
const fs = require('fs');
const dust = require('dustjs-linkedin');
// Read the template
var src = fs.readFileSync('<rest_of_path>/index.dust', 'utf8');
// Compile and load it. Note that we give it the index name.
var compiled = dust.compile(src, 'index');
dust.loadSource(compiled);
// Render the template with the context. Take into account that this is
// an async function
dust.render('index', { failing: failing }, function(err, html) {
// In html you have the generated html.
console.log(html);
});
Check the documentation in order not to have to compile the template every time you have to use it.

Is there a way to render a NodeJs Express view to a variable?

Is there a way to render an express view to a variable as opposed to the response stream?
var view = path.join( __dirname, '/../customer-product/views/copysheet.html');
res.render( view, {
data: product
})
I need the html on the server side so that I can be passed to PhantomJs for PDF generation.
There's a pretty good article on it at Strongloop. The upshot is that you would interact directly with the view engine like so:
var templatePath = require.resolve('./copysheet.html');
var templateFn = require('jade').compileFile(templatePath); // or whatever view engine you're usingg
var output = templateFn({data:product});

Connect assets with handlebars?

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);
});

How can I bootstrap models from express js into backbone at page load?

I have some data in a mongodb database and want to pass it to a backbone collection when I load the home page. One way of doing this would be to set up a node route like this:
exports.index = function(req, res){
db.users.find(function(err, docs) {
var docs_string = JSON.stringify(docs);
res.send(docs_string);
};
};
But this won't work because it won't render my jade template that pulls in the backbone code, it simply shows the JSON in plain text.
Alternatively, I could render my jade template passing in the data as a variable to jade:
exports.index = function(req, res){
db.users.find(function(err, docs) {
var docs_string = JSON.stringify(docs);
res.render('index', {
title: "Data",
docs_string: docs_string
})
});
};
Then in the jade template, have a script like this to add the users to my user collection:
script
var docs = !{docs_string};
var users = new app.Users();
_.each(docs, function(doc) {
var user = new app.User(doc);
users.add(user);
})
But this seems wrong, since I don't really want to pass the data to the jade template, I want to pass it to a backbone collection. Also, with this solution I don't know how to then include an underscore template (on the backbone side of things) into the page rendered by jade on the server side.
What is the standard way of passing data from a node server to a backbone collection?
Assuming your data is an object, you should convert it to string using JSON.stringify() and then insert in a page inside script tag, so your resulting HTML looks like this (I don't use Jade):
<script>
var data = {...}; // in template instead of {...} here should be the instruction to insert your json string
</script>
Then when the page loads, your script will be executed and the data will be available as a global variable in the browser so you can initialise backbone collection using it. This all is a good idea only to bootstrap your data on the first page load (to avoid extra request) and then use API to request data for this and other pages.
Check out Steamer, a tiny node / express module made for this exact purpose.
https://github.com/rotundasoftware/steamer

Jade from external source

I want to parse Jade coming from a database. Like from a blog post, where the body is in Jade. Right now I can parse HTML from Jade using:
!= post.body
It works for HTML, but doesn't for Jade. Is there a way to parse the Jade from an external source?
If you are trying to compile text-string as Jade template (post body from database):
// node.js
// https://github.com/visionmedia/jade/#a5
var jade = require('jade');
var template = 'h1 Hi';
var options = {};
var htmlFunc = jade.compile(template, options);
var locals = {};
var html = htmlFunc(locals);
// now you can pass `html` to your blog post layout.
You can compile Jade string within a template. That's odd, but anyway:
h1!= require('jade').compile('span Hi')();

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