EJS
Embedded JavaScript templates
Installation
1$ npm install ejs
Features
- Control flow with
<% %>
- Escaped output with
<%= %>
(escape function configurable) - Unescaped raw output with
<%- %>
- Newline-trim mode ('newline slurping') with
-%>
ending tag - Whitespace-trim mode (slurp all whitespace) for control flow with
<%_ _%>
- Custom delimiters (eg, use
<? ?>
instead of<% %>
) - Includes
- Client-side support
- Static caching of intermediate JavaScript
- Static caching of templates
- Complies with the Express view system
Example
1
2
3<% if (user) { %>
<h2><%= user.name %></h2>
<% } %>
Try EJS online at: https://ionicabizau.github.io/ejs-playground/ .
Usage
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10let template = ejs.compile(str, options);
template(data);
// => Rendered HTML string
ejs.render(str, data, options);
// => Rendered HTML string
ejs.renderFile(filename, data, options, function(err, str){
// str => Rendered HTML string
});
It is also possible to use ejs.render(dataAndOptions);
where you pass everything in a single object. In that case, you'll end up with local variables for all the passed options. However, be aware that your code could break if we add an option with the same name as one of your data object's properties. Therefore, we do not recommend using this shortcut.
Options
cache
Compiled functions are cached, requiringfilename
filename
The name of the file being rendered. Not required if you are usingrenderFile()
. Used bycache
to key caches, and for includes.root
Set project root for includes with an absolute path (/file.ejs).context
Function execution contextcompileDebug
Whenfalse
no debug instrumentation is compiledclient
Whentrue
, compiles a function that can be rendered in the browser without needing to load the EJS Runtime ( ejs.min.js ).delimiter
Character to use with angle brackets for open/closedebug
Output generated function bodystrict
When set totrue
, generated function is in strict mode_with
Whether or not to usewith() {}
constructs. Iffalse
then the locals will be stored in thelocals
object. Set tofalse
in strict mode.localsName
Name to use for the object storing local variables when not usingwith
Defaults tolocals
rmWhitespace
Remove all safe-to-remove whitespace, including leading and trailing whitespace. It also enables a safer version of-%>
line slurping for all scriptlet tags (it does not strip new lines of tags in the middle of a line).escape
The escaping function used with<%=
construct. It is used in rendering and is.toString()
ed in the generation of client functions. (By default escapes XML).outputFunctionName
Set to a string (eg, 'echo' or 'print') for a function to print output inside scriptlet tags.
This project uses JSDoc . For the full public API documentation, clone the repository and run npm run doc
. This will run JSDoc with the proper options and output the documentation to out/
. If you want the both the public & private API docs, run npm run devdoc
instead.
Tags
<%
'Scriptlet' tag, for control-flow, no output<%_
'Whitespace Slurping' Scriptlet tag, strips all whitespace before it<%=
Outputs the value into the template (escaped)<%-
Outputs the unescaped value into the template<%#
Comment tag, no execution, no output<%%
Outputs a literal '<%'%%>
Outputs a literal '%>'%>
Plain ending tag-%>
Trim-mode ('newline slurp') tag, trims following newline_%>
'Whitespace Slurping' ending tag, removes all whitespace after it
For the full syntax documentation, please seedocs/syntax.md.
Includes
Includes either have to be an absolute path, or, if not, are assumed as relative to the template with the include
call. For example if you are including ./views/user/show.ejs
from ./views/users.ejs
you would use <%- include('user/show') %>
.
You must specify the filename
option for the template with the include
call unless you are using renderFile()
.
You'll likely want to use the raw output tag ( <%-
) with your include to avoid double-escaping the HTML output.
1
2
3
4
5<ul>
<% users.forEach(function(user){ %>
<%- include('user/show', {user: user}) %>
<% }); %>
</ul>
Includes are inserted at runtime, so you can use variables for the path in the
include
call (for example <%- include(somePath) %>
). Variables in your top-level data object are available to all your includes, but local variables need to be passed down.
NOTE: Include preprocessor directives ( <% include user/show %>
) are still supported.
Custom delimiters
Custom delimiters can be applied on a per-template basis, or globally:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11let ejs = require('ejs'),
users = ['geddy', 'neil', 'alex'];
// Just one template
ejs.render('<?= users.join(" | "); ?>', {users: users}, {delimiter: '?'});
// => 'geddy | neil | alex'
// Or globally
ejs.delimiter = '$';
ejs.render('<$= users.join(" | "); $>', {users: users});
// => 'geddy | neil | alex'
Caching
EJS ships with a basic in-process cache for caching the intermediate JavaScript functions used to render templates. It's easy to plug in LRU caching using Node's lru-cache
library:
1
2
3let ejs = require('ejs'),
LRU = require('lru-cache');
ejs.cache = LRU(100); // LRU cache with 100-item limit
If you want to clear the EJS cache, call ejs.clearCache
. If you're using the LRU cache and need a different limit, simple reset ejs.cache
to a new instance of the LRU.
Custom file loader
The default file loader is fs.readFileSync
, if you want to customize it, you can set ejs.fileLoader.
1
2
3
4
5
6let ejs = require('ejs');
let myFileLoad = function (filePath) {
return 'myFileLoad: ' + fs.readFileSync(filePath);
};
ejs.fileLoader = myFileLoad;
With this feature, you can preprocess the template before reading it.
Layouts
EJS does not specifically support blocks, but layouts can be implemented by including headers and footers, like so:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8<%- include('header') -%>
<h1>
Title
</h1>
<p>
My page
</p>
<%- include('footer') -%>
Client-side support
Go to the Latest Release , download
./ejs.js
or ./ejs.min.js
. Alternately, you can compile it yourself by cloning the repository and running jake build
(or $(npm bin)/jake build
if jake is not installed globally).
Include one of these files on your page, and ejs
should be available globally.
Example
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10<div id="output"></div>
<script src="ejs.min.js"></script>
<script>
let people = ['geddy', 'neil', 'alex'],
html = ejs.render('<%= people.join(", "); %>', {people: people});
// With jQuery:
$('#output').html(html);
// Vanilla JS:
document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = html;
</script>
Caveats
Most of EJS will work as expected; however, there are a few things to note:
- Obviously, since you do not have access to the filesystem,
ejs.renderFile()
won't work. For the same reason,
include
s do not work unless you use aninclude callback
. Here is an example:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9let str = "Hello <%= include('file', {person: 'John'}); %>", fn = ejs.compile(str, {client: true}); fn(data, null, function(path, d){ // include callback // path -> 'file' // d -> {person: 'John'} // Put your code here // Return the contents of file as a string }); // returns rendered string
IDE Integration with Syntax Highlighting
VSCode:Javascript EJS by DigitalBrainstem
Related projects
There are a number of implementations of EJS:
- TJ's implementation, the v1 of this library: https://github.com/tj/ejs
- Jupiter Consulting's EJS: http://www.embeddedjs.com/
- EJS Embedded JavaScript Framework on Google Code: https://code.google.com/p/embeddedjavascript/
- Sam Stephenson's Ruby implementation: https://rubygems.org/gems/ejs
- Erubis, an ERB implementation which also runs JavaScript: http://www.kuwata-lab.com/erubis/users-guide.04.html#lang-javascript
- DigitalBrainstem EJS Language support: https://github.com/Digitalbrainstem/ejs-grammar
License
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 ( http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 )
EJS Embedded JavaScript templates copyright 2112 mde@fleegix.org.