Express template

Express can handle server-side template engines. The template engine allows us to add data to the view and dynamically generate HTML.

Express can handle server-side template engines.

The template engine allows us to add data to the view and dynamically generate HTML.

Express uses Jade as the default setting. Jade is an old version of Pug, especially Pug 1.0.

Since the project released version 2 in 2016, the name was changed from Jade to Pug due to trademark issues. You can still use Jade, which is Pug 1.0, but it is better to use Pug 2.0 in the future

Although the latest version of Jade is 3 years old (at the time of writing, summer 2018), it is still the default version in Express for backward compatibility reasons.

In any new project, Pug or another engine of your choice should be used. The official website of Pug ishttps://pugjs.org/.

You can use many different template engines, including Pug, Handlebar, Mustache, EJS, etc.

Use pug

To use Pug, we must first install it:

npm install pug

And when initializing the Express application, we need to set it up:

const express = require('express')
const app = express()
app.set('view engine', 'pug')

Now we can start at.pugfile.

Create an about view:

app.get('/about', (req, res) => {
  res.render('about')
})

And template inviews/about.pug:

p Hello from Flavio
This template will create a p tag with the content Hello from Flavio.


You can interpolate a variable using


app.get('/about', (req, res) => {
  res.render('about', { name: 'Flavio' })
})

p Hello from #{name}
This is a very short introduction to Pug, in the context of using it with Express. Look at the Pug guide for more information on how to use Pug.


If you are used to template engines that use HTML and interpolate variables, like Handlebars (described next), you might run into issues, especially when you need to convert existing HTML to Pug. This online converter from HTML to Jade (which is very similar, but a little different than Pug) will be  a great help: https://jsonformatter.org/html-to-jade




Also see the differences between Jade and Pug




Using Handlebars


Let’s try and use Handlebars instead of Pug.


You can install it using npm install hbs.


Put an about.hbs template file in the views/ folder:


Hello from {{name}}
and then use this Express configuration to serve it on /about:


const express = require('express')
const app = express()
const hbs = require('hbs')

app.set(‘view engine’, ‘hbs’)
app.set(‘views’, path.join(__dirname, ‘views’))


app.get(’/about’, (req, res) => {
res.render(‘about’, { name: ‘Flavio’ })
})


app.listen(3000, () => console.log(‘Server ready’))



You can also render a React application server-side, using the express-react-views package.


Start with npm install express-react-views react react-dom.


Now instead of requiring hbs we require express-react-views and use that as the engine, using jsx files:


const express = require('express')
const app = express()

app.set(‘view engine’, ‘jsx’)
app.engine(‘jsx’, require(‘express-react-views’).createEngine())


app.get(’/about’, (req, res) => {
res.render(‘about’, { name: ‘Flavio’ })
})


app.listen(3000, () => console.log(‘Server ready’))



Just put an about.jsx file in views/, and calling /about should present you an “Hello from Flavio” string:


const React = require('react')

class HelloMessage extends React.Component {
render() {
return <div>Hello from {this.props.name}</div>
}
}


module.exports = HelloMessage


  

  
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