Views

Introduction

Views are the user-facing part of the application, in this case, HTML files. We’ve dealt with views in an earlier project where the server would send HTML files to the user. These files are static, but many of our use cases require views to be dynamic w.r.t. data.

Hence, we use template engines to create our views. As the name suggests, we write template files in our codebase that get transformed into HTML when we respond to a server request. Any variables defined in our template files are replaced with actual data. Additionally, we can insert conditional and/or loop logic into our template file, e.g. render the user’s username once they have logged in. This would not be possible with plain HTML.

In this course, we will use EJS. EJS’s syntax is very similar to that of HTML, meaning that the learning curve is relatively low compared to other template engines.

Lesson overview

This section contains a general overview of topics that you will learn in this lesson.

How to setup EJS in an Express project.
How to use EJS.

Setting up EJS

Let’s get started with EJS! Install EJS into your application by typing the following into your terminal:

npm install ejs

At the root of your project, create a subfolder called views.

Next, we need to let our app know that we intend to use EJS as a template engine, as well as where to look for view files.

In your app.js file, set the following application properties:

app.set("views", path.join(__dirname, "views"));
app.set("view engine", "ejs");

And import the Path CommonJS module from Node near the top:

const path = require("node:path");

This enables EJS as the view engine, and that our app should look for templates in the /views subdirectory.

EJS syntax

In EJS, the <% and %> tags allow us to use JavaScript. This lets us write conditional statements, for loops, as well as use variables.

In order to output a variable as a value, we use the <%= tag.

Here’s a quick example that includes arrays and loop logic.

<% const animals = ["Cat", "Dog", "Lemur", "Hawk"] %>

<ul>
  <% animals.map((animal) => { %>
    <li><%= animal %>s are cute</li>
  <% }) %>
</ul>

Using EJS with Express

Let’s use EJS with Express. First, create an EJS template file called index.ejs in the views subdirectory, and add the following:

<html>
  <body>
    <%= message %>
  </body>
</html>

And in app.js, render this template file in one of your routes:

app.get("/", (req, res) => {
  res.render("index", { message: "EJS rocks!" });
});

Start the server and go to the / route in the browser. You should see:

EJS rocks!

If you inspect the HTML in the browser’s dev tools, you can see the HTML is structured exactly like how we wrote the EJS template with the message variable replaced with its value.

When you hit the / route, res.render("index", { message: "EJS rocks!" }); is the line that sends back the response. Since we’ve already defined the views and view engine app properties, the first argument of res.render is programmed to look for “a template called index in the specified folder”, while the second argument is an object of variables that are to be made available to that specific template.

The locals variable in EJS

In the example above, how did the template file know about the message variable? When we render the view, EJS has access to any properties from the object we pass into res.render, as well as any properties on Express’s res.locals object (res.locals can be useful if you need to pass values to the view in one middleware function, but won’t call res.render until later in the middleware chain).

EJS will store these properties in an object called locals, which you can access in the view. Similarly to the global window object in browsers, this allows you to access the message variable in the view via locals.message, or simply just message.

Undefined variables in locals

If we try to access a variable in a rendered template file that was not defined in the locals argument of res.render or res.locals, this can cause a reference error. For instance if we try to access an undefined foo variable, locals.foo will return undefined, while foo will result in an reference error. Verify this by outputting locals.foo in index.ejs, then replacing it withfoo:

<html>
  <body>
    <%= message %>
    <!-- replace the below with the output of just foo -->
    <%= locals.foo %>
  </body>
</html>

Reusable templates

You may want to include webpage components that are shared across different pages, such as a sidebar or a header. To insert such components into your pages, we make use of the include command. This requires the name of the file to be inserted, and optionally an object of data you wish to pass.

Create the following navbar component called "navbar.ejs":

<!-- navbar.ejs -->
<nav>
  <ul>
    <% for (let i = 0; i < links.length; i++) { %>
      <li>
        <a href="<%= links[i].href %>">
          <span> <%= links[i].text %> </span>
        </a>
      </li>
    <% } %>
  </ul>
</nav>

Note that the navbar expects a links variable. To pass this data into the navbar, pass it as a locals variable when rendering the template file at res.render(). We will render index.ejs to include the navbar. To do this, modify app.js such that a links object is defined and passed into the render function rendering index.ejs in the "/" route handler:

// app.js
const links = [
  { href: "/", text: "Home" },
  { href: "about", text: "About" },
];

app.get("/", (req, res) => {
  res.render("index", { links: links });
});

Then, modify the previously created index.ejs to remove the <%= message %> line and instead include the navbar with the links variable like so:

<!-- index.ejs -->
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Homepage</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <%- include('navbar', {links: links}) %>
  </body>
</html>

This will include the navbar with links in index.ejs. Run your server and see! Reusable templates can be used to include headers and footers in all of your pages.

Note the use of the raw output tag <%- with the include which is used to avoid double-escaping the HTML output.

Let’s use include to dynamically render a list of variables a different way. In app.js, add the following users array just below the links variable, and pass it to the render function when rendering index:

// app.js

const links = [
  { href: "/", text: "Home" },
  { href: "about", text: "About" },
];

const users = ["Rose", "Cake", "Biff"];

app.get("/", (req, res) => {
  res.render("index", { links: links, users: users });
});

Then create a new view called user.ejs in the views directory:

<li><%= user %></li>

Then add the following block to index.ejs:

<ul>
  <% users.forEach((user) => { %>
    <%- include('user', {user: user}); %>
  <% }); %>
</ul>

If successful, Rose, Cake and Biff will be visible when rendering index.ejs.

Directories within the views folder

Let’s create nested directories of EJS template files within the views. Change the user.ejs in the views directory to users/user.ejs, and in index.ejs change the path from user to users/user in the users.forEach block:

<!-- index.ejs -->
<ul>
  <% users.forEach((user) => { %>
    <%- include('users/user', {user: user}); %>
  <% }); %>
</ul>

Serving Static Assets

Serving static assets with EJS is similar to how we served assets previously when working directly with HTML, in that we can add external files to the head of the template file using the link tag. The main thing to point out is that the app needs to know where to serve assets from. Assuming express is installed, set the following lines in app.js:

const assetsPath = path.join(__dirname, "public");
app.use(express.static(assetsPath));

express.static() is a middleware function that enables the use of static assets, and we tell it to look for assets with the public directory as the root.

Create the following styles.css file in the root of the public directory:

body {
  color: red;
}

To serve styles.css in index.ejs, set the following link tag like so in the head:

<head>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="./styles.css">
</head>

Your index.ejs file should now display red text!

Assignment

Have another read through the EJS docs.
Read through the Express resource on template engines. The resource uses Pug for the examples which has a different syntax, however the information should still be a useful supplement to this lesson.
Let’s add to the app we’ve been developing this lesson! Add a view for an about page, which should render on the /about route.
Create a reusable footer template and render it in all of the app routes.

Knowledge check

The following questions are an opportunity to reflect on key topics in this lesson. If you can’t answer a question, click on it to review the material, but keep in mind you are not expected to memorize or master this knowledge.