select_tag is not defined

Question

Running node.js with Express and EJS for rendering here is my code:

<%
var choices = [ {value: '', text: ' ' }, 
            {value: 'HELD', text: 'HELD'},
            {value: 'CLEAR', text: 'CLEAR'}  ];
var selected = 0;
for (var i=0; i<choices.length; i++){
if (manifest.z_customs_status.trim() == choices[i].value){
    selected = i;
    break;
}
}
select_tag('z_customs_status', selected,  choices)
%>

When the code runs I get

select_tag is not defined

as an error within EJS. select_tag is documented here

https://code.google.com/p/embeddedjavascript/wiki/ViewHelpers

Is EJS still viable for node development with Express?

Answer 1

It looks like these aren't even defined in the source, which makes me wonder why it's on their wiki page. I did find from another answer that there is the package called express-helpers, which when configured, allows access to all of the view helpers.

npm install express-helpers

In your app.js, configure it:

require('express-helpers')(app);

Finally, your view will be slightly different:

<% 
    var choices = [ 
        {value: 1,text: 'First Choice'}, 
        {value: 2,text: 'Second Choice'},
        {value: 3,text: 'Third Choice'}  
    ]
%>
<%- select_tag('mySelectElement', choices, { value: 2 }) %>

The select_tag has the following parameters:

name
choices
html_options
  id      
  name
  value (selected value)