So I have a very simple server to test this:

import express from 'express';
const app = express();
app.set('views', './public');
const PORT = 3002;

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.render('index.ejs', { title: 'Page Title'});
});


app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running at http://localhost:${PORT}`);
});

What I would like to be able to do is create a link in the index.ejs to, for example, page2.ejs, page3.ejs, etc... and have express render the .ejs reached from the link without having to create a route for each page in my app.js as:

app.get('/page2.ejs', (req, res) => {
  res.render('page2.ejs');
});
app.get('/page3.ejs', (req, res) => {
  res.render('page3.ejs');
});
app.get('/page4.ejs', (req, res) => {
  res.render('page4.ejs');
});

would seem stupidly inefficient...

So I have a very simple server to test this:

import express from 'express';
const app = express();
app.set('views', './public');
const PORT = 3002;

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.render('index.ejs', { title: 'Page Title'});
});


app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running at http://localhost:${PORT}`);
});

What I would like to be able to do is create a link in the index.ejs to, for example, page2.ejs, page3.ejs, etc... and have express render the .ejs reached from the link without having to create a route for each page in my app.js as:

app.get('/page2.ejs', (req, res) => {
  res.render('page2.ejs');
});
app.get('/page3.ejs', (req, res) => {
  res.render('page3.ejs');
});
app.get('/page4.ejs', (req, res) => {
  res.render('page4.ejs');
});

would seem stupidly inefficient...

• node.js
• express
• ejs

3 Answers 3

It would be:

const viewDir = path.join(__dirname, 'view');

app.get('/', ...);

app.get('/*', (req, res, next) => {
  const viewPath = path.join(viewDir, req.path + '.ejs');

  if (viewPath.startsWith(viewDir) && fs.existsSync(viewPath)) {
    res.render(viewPath);
  } else {
    next();
  }
});

viewPath.startsWith(viewDir) check prevents from accessing files outside the expected location.

Well, i sort of fixed it but created another problem! The following works:

import express from 'express';
const app = express();

app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
const PORT = 3002;

app.get('/*', (req, res) => {
  console.log(req.url);
  // res.render('index.ejs', { title: 'Page Title'});
  res.render(`.${req.url}`, { title: 'Page Title'});
});


app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running at http://localhost:${PORT}`);
});

The pages serve fine, and ejs is processed... BUUUUT: Every page request generates an error in the console:

Error: Cannot find module 'ico'
Require stack:
- C:\WDev\testSites\expressEJS\node_modules\express\lib\view.js
- C:\WDev\testSites\expressEJS\node_modules\express\lib\application.js
- C:\WDev\testSites\expressEJS\node_modules\express\lib\express.js
    at Function._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1246:15)
    at Function._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1072:27)
    at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:322:14)
    at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:216:24)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1337:12)
    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:139:16)
    at new View (C:\WDev\testSites\expressEJS\node_modules\express\lib\view.js:81:14)
    at Function.render (C:\WDev\testSites\expressEJS\node_modules\express\lib\application.js:587:12)
    at ServerResponse.render (C:\WDev\testSites\expressEJS\node_modules\express\lib\response.js:1049:7)
    at file:///C:/WDev/testSites/expressEJS/app.js:25:7

Would be really good to fix that!

Ok, solved it, needed more coffee!

import express from 'express';
const app = express();

app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
const PORT = 3002;

app.get('/*.ejs', (req, res) => {
  let ejsPage = req.url;
  if (ejsPage.indexOf('/') === 0) { ejsPage = ejsPage.slice(1) }
  res.render(ejsPage, { title: 'Page Title'});
});

app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running at http://localhost:${PORT}`);
});

problem with my earlier solution was of course the get was trying to handle things other than .ejs (like the request from browser for favicon).