Nodejs EJS helper functions?

Question

Nodejs EJS helper functions?

Is there a way to register helper functions to EJS templates, so that they can be called from any EJS template? So, it should work something like this.

app.js

ejs.helpers.sayHi = function(name) {
    return 'Hello ' + name;
});

index.ejs

<%= sayHi('Bob') %>

node.js
express
ejs

Answer 1

Yes, in Express 3 you can add helpers to app.locals. Ex:

app.locals.somevar = "hello world";

app.locals.someHelper = function(name) {
  return ("hello " + name);
}

These would be accessible inside your views like this:

<% somevar %>

<% someHelper('world') %>

Note: Express 2.5 did helpers differently.

Answer 2

I have another solution to this, and I think it has some advantages:

Don't polute your code exporting filters.
Access any method without the need to export them all.
Better ejs usage (no | pipes).

On your controller:

exports.index = function(req, res) {
// send your function to ejs
    res.render('index', { sayHi: sayHi });
}

function sayHi(name) {
    return 'Hello ' + name;
};

Now you can use sayHi function inside your ejs:

<html>
    <h1><%= sayHi('Nice Monkey!') %></h1>
</html>

You can use this method to send modules to ejs, for example, you could send 'moment' module to format or parse dates.

Answer 3

Here's an example filter...I'm not familiar with helpers.

var ejs = require('ejs');

ejs.filters.pluralize = function(num, str){
    return num == 1 ? str : str+'s';
};


 <%=: items.length | pluralize:'Item' %>

Will produce "Item" if it's 1, or if 0 or > 1, produces "Items"

app.js

ejs.filters.sayHi = function(name) {
    return 'Hello ' + name;
});

index.ejs

<%=: 'Bob' |  sayHi %>