How can I define global variables in nunjucks?

Question

Using nunjucks, how can I define some global variables that should always be available within all templates?

Ideally, they would be specified somewhere in the environment or config options and not have to be merged into the context dict with each call to nunjucksEnvironment.render.

If you happen to be using Express, you can use [`app.locals`](http://expressjs.com/api.html#app.locals) to store global variables. — robertklep, Dec 29 '13 at 09:03
Actually, I want to use these templates client-side too, so... the solution can't have a dependency on server-side tech. — mpen, Dec 29 '13 at 18:43

score 10 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 19 '17 at 15:34

It might be also helpfull for someone. It is possible to avoid writing any js code when dealing with global variables in nunjucks.

You need to create a _globals.html file, which contains all the global variables.

{% set some_var1 = "Foo" %}
{% set some_var2 = "Bar" %}

Then include _globals.html to any page, where you need the global variable. E.g. somePage.html

{% import '_globals.html' as globals %}

<span>{{globals.some_var1 }}</span>
<span>{{globals.some_var2 }}</span>

For more info please check http://mozilla.github.io/nunjucks/templating.html#set

This should be the accepted answer. No need to rebuild your js, or gulpfile with this approach, unless your global data "needs" to be JavaScript based. — klewis, Nov 10 '22 at 18:38

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 29 '13 at 19:34

5

It's not documented (or perhaps advised), but this works:

var njglobals = require('nunjucks/src/globals');
njglobals.someVar = 'someValue';

You can now use someVar in your templates.

Be sure not to overwrite any of the existing properties of the njglobals object, though (for nunjucks@1.0.1, they are range, cycler and joiner).

answered Dec 29 '13 at 19:34

robertklep

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Not sure why globals aren't advised. I want to set a "debug" environment variable, for example, to conditionally include livereload and minified files. – mpen Dec 29 '13 at 22:33
1

It's not so much not advised, it's re-using an internal part of the module because there doesn't seem to be a public API for it :) – robertklep Dec 30 '13 at 07:35

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 04 '14 at 20:50

5

I was just looking for this and came here. Looks like there's now a recommended way which was added in recently in version 1.0.6.

See Environment.addGlobal.

answered Sep 04 '14 at 20:50

Joe

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How can I define global variables in nunjucks?

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