Dynamic Content Rendering in Express.js

Creating Personalized Web Experiences

3 min readMay 29, 2023

Dynamic content is a crucial aspect of web development, as it allows websites to display personalized information and respond to user interactions. In this blog post, we will explore how to render dynamic content in Express.js using the EJS (Embedded JavaScript) templating engine. We will cover the basics of EJS, demonstrate its usage in an Express.js application. Let’s get started!

What is EJS?

EJS is a popular templating engine that enables developers to generate dynamic HTML content. It seamlessly integrates JavaScript code within HTML templates, allowing for the dynamic execution of JavaScript logic, data manipulation, and conditional rendering. EJS templates are simple, intuitive, and easy to work with, making them a preferred choice for many developers.

Setting Up an Express.js Application with EJS

To render dynamic content using EJS in Express.js, follow these steps:

Step 1: Install the necessary dependencies

Ensure that you have Node.js and npm installed on your system. In your project directory, run the following command to install Express.js and EJS:

npm install express ejs

Step 2: Configure Express.js to use EJS

In your Express.js application file (e.g., app.js or index.js), add the following lines of code:

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
app.use(express.static('public'));

// Define your routes and middleware
// ...

The app.set('view engine', 'ejs') line configures Express.js to use EJS as the template engine. The app.use(express.static('public')) line is optional and sets up a static files directory (if needed).

Step 3: Create an EJS template

Create a new folder called views in your project directory. Inside the views folder, create an EJS template file, e.g., home.ejs. This file will contain the dynamic content that you want to render. Here's a basic example:

<!-- views/home.ejs -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>My Dynamic Page</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Welcome to my website, <%= username %>!</h1>
</body>
</html>

In this example, <%= username %> is a placeholder that will be replaced with the actual username when the template is rendered.

Step 4: Create a route to render the EJS template

In your Express.js application file, define a route that renders the EJS template. Here’s an example:

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  const username = 'John Doe'; // Replace with your desired dynamic data
  res.render('home', { username });
});

In this route, we use res.render() to render the home.ejs template and pass in the dynamic data (username) as an object.

Step 5: Start the server

Finally, start the Express.js server:

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});

Bonus: Learn More about EJS

To explore more features and advanced usage of EJS, visit the official EJS website at https://ejs.co/ or the blog on DigitalOcean. The website provides detailed documentation, examples, and additional resources to help you master EJS and leverage its full potential in your Express.js applications.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, rendering dynamic content in Express.js using the EJS templating engine is a powerful technique that allows you to create personalized and interactive web applications. By seamlessly integrating JavaScript code within HTML templates, EJS enables dynamic execution of logic, data manipulation, and conditional rendering.

In this blog post, we covered the basic steps to get started with EJS in an Express.js application. We learned how to install the necessary dependencies, configure Express.js to use EJS as the template engine, create EJS templates with placeholders for dynamic data, define routes to render the templates, and start the server. EJS provides a straightforward and intuitive way to generate dynamic HTML content, making it a preferred choice for many developers.

Now armed with the knowledge of rendering dynamic content using EJS in Express.js, you can take your web applications to the next level by delivering personalized experiences and engaging user interactions. Happy coding!