Node says Jade has no method "renderFile", why?

Question

I installed jade (npm install jade) and went over to their github page to grab some examples. This is what I wanted to execute:

code.jade:

- var title = "Things"
h1= title
ul#users
  - each user, name in users
    - if (user.isA == "ferret")
      li(class: 'user-' + name) #{name} is just a ferret
    - else
      li(class: 'user-' + name) #{name} #{user.email}

code.js:

var jade = require('jade');

var options = {
    locals: {
        users: {
            tj: { age: 23, email: 'tj@vision-media.ca', isA: 'human' },
            tobi: { age: 1, email: 'tobi@is-amazing.com', isA: 'ferret' }
        }
    }
};

console.log(jade)

jade.renderFile('code.jade', options, function(err, html){
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log(html);
});

I saved those files in their own folder, cd'd my way there and executed "node code.js". However, node throws an error and says that Jade has no method "renderFile"! Can you tell me what am I doing wrong and what should I do to fix it?

full error message:

node.js:134
        throw e; // process.nextTick error, or 'error' event on first tick
        ^
TypeError: Object #<Object> has no method 'renderFile'
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/yann/javascript/jade/code.js:18:6)
    at Module._compile (module.js:402:26)
    at Object..js (module.js:408:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:334:31)
    at Function._load (module.js:293:12)
    at Array.<anonymous> (module.js:421:10)
    at EventEmitter._tickCallback (node.js:126:26)

loganfsmyth · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-04T15:15:36.667

13

It looks like newer versions of Jade use a different API, there is no more 'renderFile' method. Take a look at the 'Public API' section on here: https://github.com/visionmedia/jade

Something like this is probably what you want. Just remember you only need to read the file once. If you are doing it dynamically, be sure not to read it synchronously.

var jade = require('jade');
var fs = require('fs');

var jadetemplate = jade.compile(fs.readFileSync('code.jade', 'utf8'));

var html = jadetemplate({
  users: {
    tj: { age: 23, email: 'tj@vision-media.ca', isA: 'human' },
    tobi: { age: 1, email: 'tobi@is-amazing.com', isA: 'ferret' }
  }
});

console.log(html);

Update

This answer was valid when it was written, however renderFile was added back in several months later in 92c314, so it may be used now.

edited Mar 04 '14 at 15:15

answered Sep 03 '11 at 16:17

loganfsmyth

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I should add that for current versions of node you need to change toString() to toString('utf8', 0, jadefile.length) – Mike Valstar Nov 08 '11 at 18:44
Good point. I added the encoding argument. The bounds will get filled in automatically though. – loganfsmyth Nov 08 '11 at 20:38
5th line missing an `at` in jadetempl`at`e – Anthony Jun 01 '12 at 06:52
Good answer! Very helpful. For other node.js newbies, check out (this thread)[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5797852/in-node-js-how-do-i-include-functions-from-my-other-files] for an example about how to include files (so you can move the data out of your render script). – floer32 Dec 22 '12 at 15:48
Jade has an renderFile API in their doc. What is going on? – Nicolas S.Xu Mar 04 '14 at 10:23

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 04 '14 at 10:37

The real solution, you need to pass an absolute path as the 1st parameter in the renderFile function. It has to be relative to the root. "code.jade" won't work. Here is a working example:

  jade.renderFile('/Users/tom/documents/xueqiu/pp-fe/views/a-share.jade', {name:'Shenxin Xu'}, function(err, html){
        console.log(1111 + ' ' + html);
      });

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 21 '11 at 12:34

I recently came across the same issue. In the Alex Young tutorial I was following he was using jade.renderFile(). Similar to your case I was getting the same method not found message. After searching around I found that he had updated the function in a later commit. In this case he had created a custom function (renderJadeFile) as a "drop in" replacement for the jade.renderFile() function (See following code snippet).

Hope this helps others looking for a solution to this problem.

// Replacement function for jade.renderFile.
function renderJadeFile(template, options) {
  var fn = jade.compile(template, options);
  return fn(options.locals);
}

emails = {
  send: function(template, mailOptions, templateOptions) {
    mailOptions.to = mailOptions.to;
    // jade.renderFile(path.join(__dirname, 'views', 'mailer', template), templateOptions, function(err, text) {
    renderJadeFile(path.join(__dirname, 'views', 'mailer', template), templateOptions, function(err, text) {
      // Add the rendered Jade template to the mailOptions
      mailOptions.body = text;

      // CODE SHORTENED FOR BREVETIY
  },

  sendWelcome: function(user) {
    this.send('welcome.jade', {
        to: user.email,
        subject: 'Welcome to Nodepad'
      },
      { locals: {
        user: user
      }
    });
  }
};

Node says Jade has no method "renderFile", why?

3 Answers3

Update

Linked