CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptnode.jsexpresshandlebars.js
Ross Alxndr
Ross Alxndr

Reputation: 73

What is the best way to pass global config variables to handlebars template?

Ive a nodejs app with express-handlebars and i am wanting to define variable for things like the 'host' address for CSS and Javascript that are currently being imported in a header.hbs file that i call form within the specific layout.

Ive created a config.js file which has a number of variables i want to set and ive imported that into the app.js using:

var config = require('./config.js');

but then im lost as t where to go. for example i was thinkging if i can some how do something like this:

 <link href="{{config.csshost}}basev1.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

Can anyone provide some pointers, am stumped other than declaring these variable every time i load the template.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 4810

Answers (2)

gnowoel
gnowoel

Reputation: 1491

(This should be a comment to sctskw's answer above, but I don't have enough reputation to do that.)

Rather than overwriting app.locals with a new object, it would be better to add new properties to the existing one, like this:

app.locals.config = config;
app.locals.templateVar = 'test';

The reason is that Express uses app.locals internally. Overwriting it would lose some useful variables Express provides. For example, we could use settings.env to detect the current running environment in a view template, which is defined as app.locals.settings.env by Express.

Upvotes: 2

sctskw
sctskw

Reputation: 1598

You would set the app locals:

var app = express()

app.locals = {
     config: config,
     templateVar: 'test'
 }

Edit:

Your routes will look something like this:

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
  res.render('index', {config: config});
})

What this does, is then update the app.locals variable in express to look like this:

app.locals = {
   config: config
}

All the app.local variables are then accessible in your templates via:

{{config}}

//which is really
app.locals['config']

So, in your app.js where you configure express you would do this:

var app = express();

app.locals.config = require('./config')

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
  return res.render('index')
})

Upvotes: 7

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