Question

I want to make session variables (or any others) usable in the views without repeating myself all over again.

I came up with this:

  res.render('index', viewVariables(req, res, params, {});

And the viewVariables function:

function viewVariables(req, res, params, options) {
  var returnObject = options || {locals:{}};
  var locals = {
    currentUser: req.currentUser ? req.currentUser : false
  };
  returnObject.locals = mergeObjects(locals, returnObject.locals, true);
  return returnObject;
};

Thats not working in the latest expressjs version (different render method).

Is there a simpler or more elegent solution for that? (well I’m sure there is!)

Answer 1

Have you looked at dynamichelpers?

From the website:

app.dynamicHelpers(obj)

Registers dynamic view helpers.
Dynamic view helpers are simply
functions which accept req, res, and
are evaluated against the Server
instance before a view is rendered.
The return value of this function
becomes the local variable it is
associated with.

app.dynamicHelpers({
  session: function(req, res){
    return req.session;
  }
});

Most of the times I like to make it a function instead. This way it will be only called when you call the function in your views.