How to render doT.js templating in nodejs?

Question

Hi I would like to know how can I render output in dot.js templating engine. I think it's a generic question about nodejs templating.(read comments for more info). The reason why I chose this template engine instead of jade or ejs is because it seems the fastest engine around.

Here is my app.js:

var express = require('express'),
    app = express.createServer(),
    doT = require('doT'),
    pub = __dirname + '/public',
    view =  __dirname + '/views';

app.configure(function(){
    app.set('views', view);
    app.set('view options', {layout: false});
    app.set('view engine', 'dot');
    app.use(app.router);
});

app.register('.html', {
    compile: function(str, opts){
        return function(locals){
            return str;
        }
    }
});


app.get('/', function(req, res){

    //This is where I am trying to send data to the front end....
    res.render('index.html', { output: 'someStuff' });

});

Here is my html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset='utf-8'>
<title>Index</title>
</head>
<body>

//This is where I am trying to receive data and output it...
{{=it.output}}

</body>
</html>

I just could not find good docs on it. This was not enough: http://olado.github.com/doT/. Please help, if you can. This will improve my understanding exponentially of how data is passed to the view in nodejs. Thank you.

score 14 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 17 '12 at 20:30

14

You need to let express know to use doT as the template engine like this:

app.set("view engine", "html");
app.register('.html', doT);

edited Feb 17 '12 at 20:30

Dan D.

73,243
15
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answered Feb 12 '12 at 06:20

olado

206
2
2

Thanks, that seemed to work. It is always exiting to get an answer form the creator. I still have to figure out how to iterate over records that I pull up form mongodb, but that will be another question... Thanks. – user Feb 12 '12 at 07:57
Hi, maybe you could look into [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9252191/show-all-of-data-comming-from-mongodb-and-render-it-in-dot-js-templating-engine) question too, it's based on the one you answered here. I think you are the most qualified to tackle this question. Please help if you can. – user Feb 12 '12 at 20:06
Can you please look into this problem http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9252191/show-all-of-data-comming-from-mongodb-and-render-it-in-dot-js-templating-engine – user May 21 '12 at 14:54
1

@olado what is the solution for express 3? Is it a good idea to use [this](https://github.com/cstigler/express-dot)? Thanks – esp Jan 27 '13 at 13:21

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 10 '13 at 01:27

My post is a shameless plug, but it might help someone out.

I wasn't very happy with the way existing modules worked with Express 3.x, I wrote one called dot-emc:

https://github.com/nerdo/dot-emc

Usage is similar to what has been posted above. Install it with nom:

npm install dot-emc

Then set it up as your default view engine. I prefer using the .def extension since my text editor recognizes .dot files as Graphviz files, so the syntax is slightly different:

app.engine("def", require("dot-emc").__express);
app.set("view engine", "def");

Then you can start using it as you would any other view engine in your routes, e.g.:

app.get("/", function(req, res) {
    res.render("index", {"title": "title goes here"});
});

Since your plug is intended to help people it's welcome, after all this was the whole point of this site, to help out... — user, Feb 10 '13 at 16:12
Thanks cue8chalk. This was harder then it should be to find. — Druska, Aug 04 '13 at 05:12

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 10 '12 at 21:11

If you're running express 3, it's not supported yet. You can however use express-dot:

npm install express-dot

Then in configure

app.set('view engine', 'dot' );
app.engine('dot', require('express-dot').__express );

Then in routes:

res.render('profile', {}); // you will need to create views/profile.dot

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 19 '15 at 09:32

I know this is an old question, but I recently wanted to test doT with a standard generated Express 4.x.x app. I did not find the express example from @olado to match easy with my generated app. I tried different plugins (getting it to work, but not satisfied), so I ended up writing the template engine like this in order to get pre-compiled dot files with support for includes(#) without any extra plugin:

var users = require('./routes/users');
// Standard app above this

var dot = require("dot").process({ 
  path: (__dirname + "/views")
});

var app = express();

// view engine setup
app.engine('dot', function(template, options, cb){
    // using .dot files
    var temp = path.parse(template).name;

    var cont = dot[temp](options);

    return cb(null, cont);


    // Or as one liner
    // return cb(null, dot[path.parse(template).name](options));

    // If you want to do error checking, return the error as callback functions first arg
    // return cb(new Error('Something went wrong');
});

app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, './views'));
app.set('view engine', 'dot');

// Standard generated app below this

Now I can use it in the standard "res.render" way in the routes like this (for index.js):

/* GET home page. */
router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
  res.render('index', { title: 'Express' });
});

Remember to use {{it.value}} in the .dot template files. In basic example above, the index.dot would look something like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>{{=it.title}}</title>
    <link rel='stylesheet' href='/stylesheets/style.css' />
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>{{=it.title}}</h1>
    <p>Welcome to {{=it.title}}</p>
  </body>
</html>

How to render doT.js templating in nodejs?

4 Answers4

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