Nodejs EJS helper functions?

Question

Is there a way to register helper functions to EJS templates, so that they can be called from any EJS template? So, it should work something like this.

app.js

ejs.helpers.sayHi = function(name) {
    return 'Hello ' + name;
});

index.ejs

<%= sayHi('Bob') %>

I made up `ejs.helpers` as an example of what I'm looking for, it doesn't exist. So it doesn't matter either way, but you're right I should probably switch it to `<%=` — Farzher, Nov 04 '12 at 23:32
Are filters out of the question? They're helper-like and documented up front on the EJS github. Your helper would translate to something like `<%= 'Bob' | sayHi %>` in the template. The function would be written identically. — numbers1311407, Nov 04 '12 at 23:36
My apologies if you're not talking about visionmedia's ejs. Jumping to conclusions over here. — numbers1311407, Nov 04 '12 at 23:42
I was trying to test if using filters would actually work, and allow me to pass multiple arguments. I suppose if I passed an object as the argument, that would work. It feels like a workaround though. — Farzher, Nov 04 '12 at 23:47
They do. Just separate args with commas. The parsing can get a little wonky though, if your arguments are complex, like objects. — numbers1311407, Nov 04 '12 at 23:53

dylanized · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-20T04:17:24.843

38

Yes, in Express 3 you can add helpers to app.locals. Ex:

app.locals.somevar = "hello world";

app.locals.someHelper = function(name) {
  return ("hello " + name);
}

These would be accessible inside your views like this:

<% somevar %>

<% someHelper('world') %>

Note: Express 2.5 did helpers differently.

edited Apr 20 '13 at 04:17

answered Apr 19 '13 at 06:08

dylanized

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And where do you write such code? A link would have been helpful. – Vadorequest Feb 02 '14 at 11:08
You can write this code in the main application body, after doing var app = express(); – dylanized Feb 03 '14 at 17:02
Hum. I just don't have app, because it's overloaded by sails.js, and it's probably a bad idea to write that into the app.js, I would prefer to write this into another file called by the app.js – Vadorequest Feb 03 '14 at 18:06
1

the middleware.js in the config folder gives you an indication of how to do it in https://github.com/stefanbuck/sails-social-auth-example. You could define it there – ajeeshpu Feb 10 '14 at 00:41
you can find a gist [here](https://gist.github.com/ajeeshpu/8908454) @Vadorequest for getting the current year based on my comment above. – ajeeshpu Feb 10 '14 at 00:50
@ajeeshpu Thanks! I'll take a better look into that, interesting! – Vadorequest Feb 10 '14 at 06:54
1

I found that an equals was required to make the call in the .ejs document work: <%= someHelper('world') %>. – harvzor Apr 18 '15 at 18:53
EDIT: it's working -- This is not working for me... it says `funcName is not defined` – David Callanan Nov 02 '17 at 21:14

score 23 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 29 '13 at 01:42

I have another solution to this, and I think it has some advantages:

Don't polute your code exporting filters.
Access any method without the need to export them all.
Better ejs usage (no | pipes).

On your controller:

exports.index = function(req, res) {
// send your function to ejs
    res.render('index', { sayHi: sayHi });
}

function sayHi(name) {
    return 'Hello ' + name;
};

Now you can use sayHi function inside your ejs:

<html>
    <h1><%= sayHi('Nice Monkey!') %></h1>
</html>

You can use this method to send modules to ejs, for example, you could send 'moment' module to format or parse dates.

**+1** The only thing that helped solve my problem on this page was the `=` before the function `<%= sayHi() %>` otherwise it wouldn't print — iConnor, Jan 11 '14 at 17:56

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 04 '12 at 23:49

5

Here's an example filter...I'm not familiar with helpers.

var ejs = require('ejs');

ejs.filters.pluralize = function(num, str){
    return num == 1 ? str : str+'s';
};


 <%=: items.length | pluralize:'Item' %>

Will produce "Item" if it's 1, or if 0 or > 1, produces "Items"

app.js

ejs.filters.sayHi = function(name) {
    return 'Hello ' + name;
});

index.ejs

<%=: 'Bob' |  sayHi %>

answered Nov 04 '12 at 23:49

chovy

72,281
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1

FYI , this doesn't work anymore with EJS V2. Dilanized and Robertomarin works in both version. – jmcollin92 Mar 21 '15 at 20:21

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 16 '17 at 05:45

I am using:

In helpers/helper.js

var func = {
    sayhi: function(name) {
        return "Hello " + name;
    }, 
    foo: function(date) {
        //do somethings
    }    
};
module.exports = func;

In router:

router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
    res.render('home/index', {
        helper: require('../helpers/helper'),
        title: 'Express'
    });
});

In template:

<%= helper.sayhi("Dung Vu") %>

goodluck

Nodejs EJS helper functions?

4 Answers4

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