How can I get Express to output nicely formatted HTML?
When using Express for Node.js, I noticed that it outputs the HTML code without any newline characters or tabs. Though it may be more efficient to download, it's not very readable during development.
How can I get Express to output nicely formatted HTML?
Solution 1:
In your main app.js or what is in it's place:
Express 4.x
if (app.get('env') === 'development') {
app.locals.pretty = true;
}
Express 3.x
app.configure('development', function(){
app.use(express.errorHandler());
app.locals.pretty = true;
});
Express 2.x
app.configure('development', function(){
app.use(express.errorHandler());
app.set('view options', { pretty: true });
});
I put the pretty print in development because you'll want more efficiency with the 'ugly' in production. Make sure to set environment variable NODE_ENV=production when you're deploying in production. This can be done with an sh script you use in the 'script' field of package.json and executed to start.
Express 3 changed this because:
The "view options" setting is no longer necessary, app.locals are the local variables merged with res.render()'s, so [app.locals.pretty = true is the same as passing res.render(view, { pretty: true }).
Solution 2:
To "pretty-format" html output in Jade/Express:
app.set('view options', { pretty: true });
Solution 3:
There is a "pretty" option in Jade itself:
var jade = require("jade");
var jade_string = [
"!!! 5",
"html",
" body",
" #foo I am a foo div!"
].join("\n");
var fn = jade.compile(jade_string, { pretty: true });
console.log( fn() );
...gets you this:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<div id="foo">I am a foo div!
</div>
</body>
</html>
I doesn't seem to be very sophisticated but for what I'm after -- the ability to actually debug the HTML my views produce -- it's just fine.