express-preact-views
v1.1.0
Published
This is an Express view engine which renders preact components on server.
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express-preact-views
This is an Express view engine forked from express-react-views which renders Preact components on server.
This is intended to be used as a replacement for existing server-side view solutions, like jade, ejs, or handlebars.
Usage
npm install express-preact-views preactAdd it to your app.
// app.js
const app = express();
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
app.set('view engine', 'jsx');
app.engine('jsx', require('express-preact-views').createEngine());Options
option | values | default
-------|--------|--------
doctype | any string that can be used as a doctype, this will be prepended to your document | "<!DOCTYPE html>"
beautify | true: beautify markup before outputting (note, this can affect rendering due to additional whitespace) | false
transformViews | true: use babel to apply JSX, ESNext transforms to views.Note: if already using babel-register in your project, you should set this to false | true
babel | any object containing valid Babel optionsNote: does not merge with defaults | {presets: ['preact', [ 'env', {'targets': {'node': 'current'}}]]}
The defaults are sane, but just in case you want to change something, here's how it would look:
const options = { beautify: true };
app.engine('jsx', require('express-preact-views').createEngine(options));Views
Under the hood, Babel is used to compile your views to code compatible with your current node version, using the preact and env presets by default. Only the files in your views directory (i.e. app.set('views', __dirname + '/views')) will be compiled.
Your views should be node modules that export a preact component. Let's assume you have this file in views/index.jsx:
import { h, Component } from 'preact';
class HelloMessage extends Component {
render() {
return <div>Hello {this.props.name}</div>;
}
}
export default HelloMessage;Routes
Your routes would look identical to the default routes Express gives you out of the box.
// app.js
import index from './routes';
app.get('/', index);// routes/index.js
export default function(req, res){
res.render('index', { name: 'John' });
};That's it! Layouts follow really naturally from the idea of composition.
Layouts
Simply pass the relevant props to a layout component.
views/layouts/default.jsx:
import { h, Component } from 'preact';
class DefaultLayout extends Component {
render() {
return (
<html>
<head><title>{this.props.title}</title></head>
<body>{this.props.children}</body>
</html>
);
}
}
export default DefaultLayout;views/index.jsx:
import { h, Component } from 'preact';
import DefaultLayout from './layouts/default';
class HelloMessage extends Component {
render() {
return (
<DefaultLayout title={this.props.title}>
<div>Hello {this.props.name}</div>
</DefaultLayout>
);
}
}
export default HelloMessage;