Can I use a conditional statement in my EJS doc for a directory path in my Node/Express app?

Question

New to EJS. I want to make a conditional statement basically saying if I am on this directory path, then replace this link in my nav bar.

 <%let url = window.document.URL;
            if(!url.includes('prospects/index')) {%>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="/prospects">Targeted Prospects</a>
</li>
<% } else { %>
<li class="nav-item">
<a class="nav-link" href="/prospects/new">Add Prospects</a>
</li>
<% } %>

My res.render

module.exports.index = async (req, res) => {
const prospects = await Prospect.find({});
res.render('prospects/index', { prospects })
};

I was hoping to see when I'm on my route "prospects/index" I'll see "Add Prospects" and all other routes I'll see "Targeted Prospects." Is there a way to target that route in my if statement? Thanks!

You need to test `window.location`. `if (!window.location.includes('prospects/index')` — Barmar, Apr 03 '23 at 17:12
Getting window is undefined. Not sure where I'm supposed to define it. — Julius Evans, Apr 03 '23 at 17:41
I guess you can use `req.originalUrl` if(req.originalUrl === '/prospects/index') — Moufeed Juboqji, Apr 03 '23 at 17:44
EJS is just a template engine. What else are you using that would know what path you’re on, and how is it being used together with EJS? Is this server-side Node, Express.js? — Ry-, Apr 03 '23 at 18:13
What does your `res.render` call look like? Please [edit] the relevant code into your question. — Ry-, Apr 03 '23 at 18:39
Added my res.render to my original post from my controllers. — Julius Evans, Apr 03 '23 at 18:42
The `window` API is only available client side. If you want to get the URL server side then you need to use a server-side API (i.e. use the `req` object). — Quentin, Apr 03 '23 at 19:42
@Quentin That may or may not be useful reading, but it’s definitely not a duplicate. — Ry-, Apr 03 '23 at 19:42
possible duplicate: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18501402/finding-current-url-inside-ejs-view-when-using-express — Kevin B, Apr 03 '23 at 19:47

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 03 '23 at 19:54

You need to make the decision based on something accessible to the template. The values you can use in the template come from the object you pass to res.render. So that could be the request’s path, like you came up with:

res.render('prospects/index', {
    prospects,
    requestPath: req.path,
});

<% if (!requestPath.startsWith('/prospects/index')) %>

But I would prefer to let the router handle the request paths:

res.render('prospects/index', {
    prospects,
    isIndex: true,  // you might want to come up with a more descriptive name
})

<% if (!isIndex) %>

Then any non-index paths that render the same template should pass isIndex: false.

Can I use a conditional statement in my EJS doc for a directory path in my Node/Express app?

1 Answers1