express-ejs-layouts

Layout support for ejs in express

Installation

$ npm install express-ejs-layouts

Example

Check the example folder.

1. git clone https://github.com/soarez/express-ejs-layouts.git
2. cd express-ejs-layouts
3. npm install
4. node example
5. Open http://localhost:3000/

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

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

With a layout

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

Renders

fight club
tyler

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' });
});

Set no layout for single render

Just pass layout: false as render locals object.

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

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:

1
1.5
2
3

Running tests

Clone the repo and run:

$ npm 
test

License

MIT