nodemailer-express-handlebars | Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory for template

Question

I am having an issue where nodemailer-express-handlebars is outputing the error:

[Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open ''] {
  errno: -2,
  code: 'ENOENT',
  syscall: 'open',
  path: '/Users/person/Code/app/api/controllers/templates/undefined.hbs'

My setup is as follows:

 const handlebarOptions = {
    viewEngine: {
      extName: ".hbs",
      partialsDir: path.resolve(__dirname, "templates"),
      defaultLayout: false
    },
    viewPath: path.resolve(__dirname, "templates"),
    extName: ".hbs"
  };

  transporter.use('compile', hbs(handlebarOptions));

and sending the email with:

 let mailOptions = await transporter.sendMail({
    from: '"Test - No Reply" <test@test.com>'
    to: 'someEmail@gmail.com, 
    subject: "Hello ✔",
    template: 'welcome',
  });

Oddly enough I still receive the email even though it says it cant find the file. How can I resolve this error and have nodemailer-express-handlebars not see the files as 'undefined.hbs'?

UPDATE:

I changed 'welcome' to 'welcome.hbs' in the nodemailer and now the error is saying it can't find 'welcome.hbs.hbs'. This makes sense, you would think the solution would be to remove the '.hbs' and make it 'welcome' but then we are back to the original error of 'undefined.hbs'.

Also, if i change the template to 'welcome2' it says it cant find 'welcome2.hbs'. Its weird... it's as though it becomes undefined only when the template file matches the filename which is what it should be.

Yes. can confirm that /Users/person/Code/app/templates/ includes 'welcome.hbs' — emarel, Sep 23 '20 at 18:12
okay. I think somehow it is not getting the file path as you are using handlebars here with nodemailer. Try changing the path of the html property value and also make it is a html propertu not template property, in the above code it still shows template as the property in sendMail() — kavigun, Sep 23 '20 at 19:23
I changed 'welcome' to 'welcome.hbs' in the nodemailer and now the error is saying it can't find 'welcome.hbs.hbs'. This makes sense, you would think the solution would be to remove the '.hbs' and make it 'welcome' but then we are back to the original error of 'undefined.hbs'. Does this give you any insight on what you think the issue is? — emarel, Sep 23 '20 at 19:38
Also, if i change the template to 'welcome2' it says it cant find 'welcome2.hbs'. Its weird... it's as though it becomes undefined only when the template file matches the filename which is what it should be — emarel, Sep 23 '20 at 19:46
I've literally copied your handlebars settings into `index.js`, create a directory `templates` at same level, added `welcome.hbs` file inside, and it works. I would suggest reinstalling nodemailer, nodemailer-express-handlebars, and restarting your PC :) — Marian, Sep 26 '20 at 21:48
Actually, there is another potential reason for this error: something inside `welcome.hbs` results in this error by trying to read a non-existent file. — Marian, Sep 26 '20 at 21:50
I had exactly the same error. Your 'defaultLayout = false' helped me out. — Tichel, Oct 04 '21 at 17:41

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 06 '21 at 17:25

My solution is:

const path = require('path')
const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
const hbs = require('nodemailer-express-handlebars')

const { host, port, user, pass } = require('../config/mail.json')

var transport = nodemailer.createTransport({
    host,
    port,
    auth: { user, pass },
});

const handlebarOptions = {
    viewEngine: {
        extName: ".html",
        partialsDir: path.resolve('./src/resources/mail'),
        defaultLayout: false,
    },
    viewPath: path.resolve('./src/resources/mail'),
    extName: ".html",
};

transport.use('compile', hbs(handlebarOptions));

module.exports = transport;

The template folder in my project is: "src/resources/mail"

const mailer = require('../../modules/mailer');

mailer.sendMail({
            to: email,
            from: 'mail.example@examplemail.com',
            template: 'auth/forgot_password',
            context: { token },
        }, (err) => {
            if (err){
                console.log(err)
                return res.status(400).send({ error: 'Cannot send forgot password email'});
            }
            return res.send();
        })

My template file is "auth/forgot_password.html"

In my project a problem occurred by configs of handlebarOptions, and solution is:

const handlebarOptions = {
    viewEngine: {
        extName: ".html",
        partialsDir: path.resolve('./src/resources/mail'),
        defaultLayout: false,
    },
    viewPath: path.resolve('./src/resources/mail'),
    extName: ".html",
};

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 23 '20 at 18:14

1

It should not be a template property rather it should be html property in the sendMail object:

 let mailOptions = await transporter.sendMail({
    from: '"Test - No Reply" <test@test.com>'
    to: 'someEmail@gmail.com, 
    subject: "Hello ✔",
    html: './templates/welcome.hbs',
  });

answered Sep 23 '20 at 18:14

kavigun

2,219
2
14
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Unfortunately this still results in the same error but also the body of the email that gets sent is the literal string './templates/welcome.hbs'. – emarel Sep 23 '20 at 18:18
please use the path where is it located or else try >welcome – kavigun Sep 23 '20 at 18:20
you are also missing partialsDir:__dirname+'/templates' in options object – kavigun Sep 23 '20 at 18:26
I updated my question with the partialsDir. I am still receiving the same issue unfortunately – emarel Sep 23 '20 at 19:18

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 28 '20 at 20:19

Answering my own question. It looks as though the issue had to do with making it a async function with a callback which caused some type of undefined issue.

For an in depth answer with code reference you can see the solution here: https://github.com/yads/nodemailer-express-handlebars/issues/43

nodemailer-express-handlebars | Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory for template

3 Answers3