Include HTML blocks Using node.js

Question

This is what I want but probably can\'t have:

Using node.js and express and maybe ejs, I would like to, while writing a regular HTML file in my client dir, server-side-i

Answer 1

OK I got it...

server.js

 var express =      require('express');
 var server  =      express();
 var ejs = require('ejs'); 
 ejs.open = '{{'; 
 ejs.close = '}}';


 var oneDay = 86400000;
 server.use(express.compress());

 server.configure(function(){
   server.set("view options", {layout: false});  
   server.engine('html', require('ejs').renderFile); 
   server.use(server.router);
   server.set('view engine', 'html');
   server.set('views', __dirname + "/www");
 });


 server.all("*", function(req, res, next) {
     var request = req.params[0];

         if((request.substr(0, 1) === "/")&&(request.substr(request.length - 4) === "html")) {
         request = request.substr(1);
         res.render(request);
     } else {
         next();
     }

 });

 server.use(express.static(__dirname + '/www', { maxAge: oneDay }));

 server.listen(process.env.PORT || 8080);

and in /www I have the following .html files:

index.html

      {{include head.html}}
 {{include header.html}}

 
Hello world!

 {{include footer.html}}

head.html

 
 
 
 
   
     
         
         
         
         
         

         {{include include.css.html}}

         
     
          

include_css.html

header.html

 

      
HEADER
 

footer.html

         

             
FOOTER
         


         
         
         
         
         

         
         
     
 

It all comes through, even includes in includes and static content. It is all performed on html files, and in a context that feel like vanilla web authoring.

++++Oops+++++ Well I almost all of it. I forgot that I also wanted to be able to pass variables into the include from the templates. I haven't tried that yet... any ideas?

++++Update+++++

Ok I figured it out.

This discussion made it clear, i guess i just didn't know enough about how ejs worked.

I have changed index.html to begin with variable declarations:

 {{
    var pageTitle = 'Project Page';
    var projectName = 'Project Title';
 }}

and then you can call these variables from within the includes, no matter how deeply they are nested.

So for instance, index.html includes start.html which includes header.html. Within header .html I can call {{= projectName}} within the header even though it was declared inside index.html.

I have put the whole thing on github.