Question

Trying to write some helper methods for an express 3.0 app. Here is an example to greet the user:

  app.locals.greet = function(req,res) {
    return "hey there " + req.user.name;
  }

However, req and res aren’t available inside that function. How would I go about writing helpers that I can use inside my jade templates? Am I doing this wrong?

Answer 1

Have a look at my config app.js file! that should work to you as the variables will e available at that context.

app.configure(function(){
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
app.set('view engine', 'jade');

app.use(connect.compress());
app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/public", { maxAge: 6000000 }));
app.use(express.favicon(__dirname + "/public/img/favicon.ico", { maxAge: 6000000 }));
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(express.methodOverride());
app.use(express.cookieParser());
app.use(express.session({
    secret: config.sessionSecret,
    maxAge: new Date(Date.now() + (1000 * 60 * 15)),
    store: new MongoStore({ url: config.database.connectionString })
}));
app.use(function(req, res, next){
    console.log("\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{   REQUEST   }~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~".cyan);
    res.locals.config = config;
    res.locals.session = req.session;
    res.locals.utils = viewUtils;
        res.locals.greet = function(){
                //req and res are available here!
                return "hey there " + req.user.name;
        };
    next();
});
app.use(app.router);
});