node.js Express - How to get partial views asynchronously

Question

I've got a layout - navigation menu. In express tutorials theres only old-school pages loading. whole old page is thrown away and a new one is downloaded with all layouts,views and partial views. And i want navigation menu to stay. So how can i do that?

If i'm maybe getting smth wrong with this web pages architecture please guide me.

are you saying that you want the page partial to be like the new google search page, where only part of the page is loaded on the fly? — jcolebrand, May 15 '11 at 05:49
Then what you want is not really "express" but just plain old ajax. — jcolebrand, May 15 '11 at 16:40
I have functionality similar to this explained in [my blog post about re-using views on the client](http://gamewithnodejs.blogspot.com/2011/04/setting-up-simple-blog-part-1.html) — Raynos, May 19 '11 at 21:07

Peter Lyons · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-23T14:49:15.980

12

As @drachenstern said, you want to render only partial HTML fragments, not whole documents including the layout. You can tell express to skip the layout using:

res.render('sometemplate', {layout: false});

If you want to look for Ajax requests as distinct from full-page browser loads, use the req.xhr flag as documented here

Thus you might even be able to do

res.render('sometemplate', {layout: !req.xhr});

edited Feb 23 '13 at 14:49

answered May 21 '11 at 17:43

Peter Lyons

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Any reason you chose `req.isXMLHttpRequest` over the aliased `req.xhr` ;) – Marc Bollinger Jun 17 '11 at 06:00
3

it's just a clearer name. I generally prefer code that's easier to read over code that's easier to write if I have the option. – Peter Lyons Jun 17 '11 at 14:14
For me `req.isXMLHttpRequest` returns undefined, using express 3.x, any guesses why? – Amol M Kulkarni Feb 23 '13 at 07:48
In express 3.x it's just req.xhr – Peter Lyons Feb 23 '13 at 14:48

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 15 '12 at 14:43

0

You can also use res.partial() which is specifically for rendering partials.

Here is a sample of its usage, where 'browse.jade' is name of the template:

exports.browse = function(req, res){
  var Contact = mongoose.model('Contact');
  Contact.where({}).asc('surname', 'given_name', 'org').run(function(err, results) {
    res.partial('browse', { 
        locals: { data: results }
    });
  });
};

answered May 15 '12 at 14:43

Benjen

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`res.partial()` is now deprecated and removed from Express 3.x. They recommend to use blocks: https://github.com/visionmedia/express/wiki/Migrating-from-2.x-to-3.x – Victor Schröder Jun 16 '14 at 21:22

node.js Express - How to get partial views asynchronously

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