Why use EJS template engine with ExpressJS instead of Handlebars?
What is a Template Engine?
A template engine enables you to use static template files in your application. At runtime, the template engine replaces variables in a template file with actual values and transforms the template into the HTML file sent to the client. This approach makes it easier to design the HTML page.
A template engine is a tool that enables Frontend/Fullstack developers to write HTML markup, prepared with its(the template engine’s) defined tags or syntax that will either insert variables into the final output of the template or run some programming logic at run-time before sending the final HTML to the browser for display.
What is EJS?
EJS simply stands for Embedded Javascript. It is a simple templating language/engine that lets its user generate HTML with plain javascript.
EJS is mostly useful whenever you have to output HTML with a lot of javascript.
What is Handlebars?
Handlebars.js is an extension to the Mustache templating language created by Chris Wanstrath. Handlebars.js and Mustache are both logicless templating languages that keep the view and the code separated like we all know they should be.
EJS Benefit.
- EJS was so similar to HTML so I found it easy.
- EJS uses all the JS jargon and logic, so if you are proficient in JS, you can use EJS right away.
- EJS is way faster than Jade and handlebars.
- EJS has a really smart error handling mechanism built right into it. It points out to you, the line numbers on which an error has occurred so that you don’t end up looking through the whole template file wasting your time in searching for bugs.
- Simple template tags: <% %>.
- Custom delimiters (e.g., use <? ?> instead of <% %>)
thanks