Data flow

Edge exposes different APIs for sharing the data with the templates. Each API changes the scope at which the data is available inside the templates.

Template state

Template state is represented as an object that you can pass while rendering the view. For example:

const state = {
  user: { id: 1, username: 'virk' },
}

await view.render('user', state)

The template state is available to the rendered template, its partials, and the layout it uses. In other words, the template state is not shared with the components.

Globals

Globals are available to all the templates, including the components. You will usually use them to share helpers or application-wide metadata.

You can register a global using the View.global method. For example, you can write the following code inside a preloaded file or a service provider boot method.

import View from '@ioc:Adonis/Core/View'

View.global('nl2br', function (text) {
  return text.replace(/([^>\r\n]?)(\r\n|\n\r|\r|\n)/g, '$1<br />$2')
})

View.global('menu', [
  {
    url: '/',
    text: 'Home',
  },
  {
    url: '/about',
    text: 'About',
  },
  {
    url: '/contact',
    text: 'Contact',
  },
])

Usage

<p> {{{ nl2br(post.description) }}} </p>

@each(item in menu)
  <a href="{{ item.url }}"> {{ item.text }} </a>
@end

Locals

Locals are like globals for a given instance of the View renderer . You can share locals by using the view.share method.

You will mostly find yourself using the view.share method within middleware to share the data with the template.

Route
  .get('/', ({ view }) => {
    await view.render('home')
  })
  .middleware(({ view }, next) => {
    view.share({
      foo: 'bar'
    })
    
    return next()
  })

Inline variables

Finally, you can also define inline variables within the template files using the @set tag.

@set('title', 'Edge - A template engine for Node.js')

<title> {{ title }} </title>

The inline variables have the same scope as you define a variable in JavaScript. For example: If the variable is defined inside the each block, you cannot access it outside the each block.

@each(item in cart)
  @set('price', item.quantity * item.unitPrice)
  {{ price }}
@end

{{ price }} {{-- undefined --}}