Question

In my Node/Express.js project I can set the views folder globally like so:

app.configure(function() {
    app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
    .... snip ....
});

…and all my view templates go into the views folder.

Is it possible to override where Express looks for views on a request by request basis? For instance, something like the following:

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

The reason I ask is I’m trying to replicate Microsoft ASP.NET MVC’s Areas functionality where each Area gets it’s own views folder.

Answer 1

The ‘views’ setting is the root directory, so you should be able to specify a sub-folder in the hierarchy:

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
    res.render('areaName/viewName');
});

It means your ‘areas’ need to be sub-folders, but it allows you to accomplish the separation you are looking for.