How to use node modules (like MomentJS) in EJS views? - node.js

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 })

Related

How do you send an object to a helper in Handlebars?

Learning handlebars and Express I'm trying to learn of a way to send an object without always having to build in the render. For example if I have:
const details = {
version: process.env.npm_package_version,
author: 'foobar'
}
I can send this to my footer.hbs in partials from:
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.render('index', {
details
})
})
but looking for a way to send it to a template file and not always in a render I've read in the documentation about block helpers and tried:
// Define paths for Express config
const publicDir = path.join(__dirname, '../public')
const viewsPath = path.join(__dirname, '../templates/views')
const partialsPath = path.join(__dirname, '../templates/partials')
// Setup hbs engine and views location
app.set('view engine', 'hbs')
app.set('views', viewsPath)
hbs.registerPartials(partialsPath)
hbs.registerHelper('appDetails', () => {
const details = {
version: process.env.npm_package_version,
author: 'foobar'
}
return details
})
but in my directory /partials from file footer.hbs I try to use the helper:
<footer>
<p>Created by {{details.author}} | version: {{details.version}}</p>
</footer>
and it doesn't work. I've searched the site and I've read:
How to set a variable for the main handlebars layout without passing it to every route?
nodejs + HBS (handlebars) : passing data to partials
Passing variables through handlebars partial
In my Node and Express app is there a way to send data to the partials file without having to always send it in render?
There are two ways a Handlebars Helper can add data to the rendering context of a template:
1) By directly mutating the template's context or 2) By using private variables
Example: https://codepen.io/weft_digital/pen/JjPZwvQ
The following helper updates or adds the data points name and newData to the template's global context, and it also passes a private variable, using the data option.
Handlebars.registerHelper('datainjection', function(context, options) {
this.name = "Bob";
this.newData = "Updated"
return context.fn(this, { data: {private:"pirate"} });
});
Before you call the {{#datainjection}}{{/datainjection}} block in your template, {{name}} will be set to whatever value you pass to the render function, but every occurrence of {{name}} within or after the {{#datainjection}}{{/datainjection}} block will use the updated value, which is "Bob" in this case.
The private variable we are passing can only be accessed within the {{#datainjection}}{{/datainjection}} block using the "#" decorator.
For example:
{{#datainjection}}{{#private}}{{/datainjection}}
will render the string "pirate"

template layout for PugJs

I used NodeJs with Handlebars and thought about switching to PugJs because some functionality is native - using Handlebars requires some helper functions / partials.
In Handlebars I have to define a layout and pass in the template. In PugJs I created two example routes
First route file:
const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();
router.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.render('index', {
title: 'Home',
template: 'main'
});
});
module.exports = router;
Second route file:
const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();
router.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.render('index', {
title: 'Page2',
template: 'pageTwo'
});
});
module.exports = router;
As you can see I always have to render my index file and pass in the desired pug file as a template variable.
index.pug
doctype html
html
include ./header.pug
body
include ./templates/#{template}.pug
header.pug
head
title #{title} template!
main.pug
script(src='./client/main.js')
h1 main content here
pageTwo.pug
p pageTwo
When rendering the pug files I get this error
ENOENT: no such file or directory, open
'...\views\templates\#{template}.pug'
How can I replace #{template} with the correct template variable?
Dynamic template selection isn't a feature of pug, I believe it has something to do with how pug pre-compiles everything into a JavaScript function that stays in-memory inside node.js when it runs. The benefit of that is super-fast page rendering, so we're happy to keep using pug and just work around this.
Speaking of which, you can accomplish what you want to do using conditional logic:
doctype html
html
include ./header.pug
body
if template === 'pageOne'
include ./templates/pageOne.pug
else if template === 'pageTwo'
include ./templates/pageTwo.pug
else
include ./templates/home.pug
You should also look into the extends feature to simplify adding the header into your templates and mixins to resuse code between templates. You might find that these features could provide a better solution to your requirements with some redesign.

Setting/Accessing Nunjucks global variables within a NodeJS/KeystoneJS project

I've spent all of this morning searching for how to do this, and have come up stumped.
The project I'm working on is built on KeystoneJS/NodeJS. It's using Nunjucks which I've only got a few days basic experience of.
My issue is that after loading the config vars that sets the URI's/Ports of the services, I then want to set these up as Nunjucks variables, so within the html views, I can use those as the src locations.
I can't share all the code here, as I'm working on a government (UK) project but here's enough I hope.
Keystone.js
// Require keystone
var keystone = require('keystone');
var cons = require('consolidate');
var nunjucks = require('nunjucks');
var env = new nunjucks.Environment(null);
env.addGlobal('provision_uri', 3);
This loads initially, after routing it calls:
Login.js
var keystone = require('keystone');
var nunjucks = require('nunjucks');
exports = module.exports = function (req, res) {
var view = new keystone.View(req, res);
var locals = res.locals;
// locals.section is used to set the currently selected
// item in the header navigation.
locals.section = 'home';
var env = new nunjucks.Environment(null);
var provision_uri = env.getGlobal('provision_uri',3);
console.log(`Uri ${provision_uri}`); **<-- ERRORS HERE**
// Render the view
view.render('login', {
title: 'User Login',
description: 'Login to your Account',
provision_uri: provision_uri
});
};
Login.html
<br>
<form action="{{provision_uri}}/session" method="post" name="user">
<div class="container">
When I then start the project, the landing page loads, click on the login page and within console I get:
GET /provision/ 304 74.147 ms
Error thrown for request: /login
Error: global not found: provision_uri
I've checked this Question however it doesn't answer what I need but I looked up the environment.addGlobal given as an answer. That did seem to be what I wanted, but still it wouldn't work. I found this question which provided hope.
Any ideas would be great, I do have a work-around but would like to learn how to use these.
Thanks,
Colin
You don't need to create new instance of nunjucks environment on each render call. The new scope (environment) has empty global space.
var nunjucks = require('nunjucks');
var env = new nunjucks.Environment(null);
env.addGlobal('provision_uri', 3);
...
exports = module.exports = function (req, res) {
...
var provision_uri = env.getGlobal('provision_uri',3);
console.log(provision_uri);
view.render('login', {
title: 'User Login',
description: 'Login to your Account',
// provision_uri: provision_uri // it's not necessary
});
}

How to serve rendered Jade pages as if they were static HTML pages in Node Express?

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.

Get compiled jade template inside view?

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'
})
]);

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