express-ejs-layouts

Layout support for ejs in express

Installation

$ npm install express-ejs-layouts

Usage

var express = require('express');
var expressLayouts = require('express-ejs-layouts');

var app = express();

app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

app.use(expressLayouts);

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
  var locals = {
    title: 'Page Title',
    description: 'Page Description',
    header: 'Page Header'
  };
  res.render('the-view', locals);
});

app.listen(3000);

`contentFor`

A view

somebody
<%- contentFor('foo') %>
club
<%- contentFor('bar') %>
fight

With a layout

<%-bar%> <%-foo%>
<%-body%>

Renders

fight club
somebody

As another example, consider this view:

foo
<%- contentFor('pageSectionA') %>
bar
<%- contentFor('pageSectionB') %>
baz

Using it with this layout:

<div class="header"><%- pageSectionA %></div>
<div class="body"><%- body %></div>
<div class="footer"><%-defineContent('pageSectionB')%></div>

Will render:

<div class="header">bar</div>
<div class="body">foo</div>
<div class="footer">baz</div>

Notice that the difference between using <%- pageSectionA %> and <%-defineContent('pageSectionA')%> is that the former will generate an error if the view doesn't define content for this section.

Script blocks extraction

If you like to place all the script blocks at the end, you can do it like this:

app.set("layout extractScripts", true)

A view

something<script>somejs<script>something

With a layout

<body>
  <%- body %>
  <%- script %>
</body>

Renders

<body>
  somethingsomething
  <script>somejs<script>
</body>

Enabling invididually:

req.render('view', { extractScripts: true })

When the "layout extractScripts" option is activated, scripts defined in views will be extracted (won't be a part of body) and will be available for use in the layout through the variable scripts.

Another example:

This view:

<script src="/b.js" />
<div>foo</div>
<script src="/a.js" />
<div>bar</div>
<script src="/c.js" />

Used with this layout:

<div class="main">
<%- body %>
</div>
<!-- place the scripts at the end of the html page -->
<%- script %>

Will render:

<div class="main">
<div>foo</div>
<div>bar</div>
</div>
<!-- place the scripts at the end of the html page -->
<script src="/b.js" />
<script src="/a.js" />
<script src="/c.js" />

Style blocks extraction

Works exactly like script blocks extraction except:

Supported tags are <link rel="stylesheet" …> and <style …>
The option is named extractStyles
The template variable in layout is style

Meta blocks extraction

Works exactly like script blocks extraction except:

Supported tags are <meta …> and <meta …/>
The option is named extractMetas
The template variable in layout is meta

Set custom default layout

By default 'layout.ejs' is used. If you want to specify your custom layout (e.g. 'layouts/layout.ejs'), just set layout property in express app settings.

app.set('layout', 'layouts/layout');

Set custom layout for single render

Just pass layout as render locals object.

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
  res.render('the-view', { layout: 'specific-layout' });
);

Optional sections

In a layout, you can have optional sections using defineContent: Unspecified section content defaults to ''.

1
<%-defineContent('a')%>
2
<%-defineContent('b')%>
3

with a view:

<%- contentFor('a') %>
1.5

will render:

Running tests

Clone the rep and run:

$ make test

License

MIT

abc126/express-ejs-layouts