---
title: "[NJS] Server, templates and the pipeline"
slug: njs-server-templates-and-the-pipeline
section: tech
date: 2016-07-10T16:25:00.000Z
canonical: https://roland.leth.ro/blog/tech/njs-server-templates-and-the-pipeline
---
As I said in my previous post, I will do a suite of posts regarding the migration of my website from ruby to Node.js, and to make them easier to spot, I will prefix them with *[NJS]*. Small warning: I'm not a semicolon user. I've read quite a bit about it, and I made my choice knowingly.
So, the first thing I picked was [Express](http://expressjs.com), a really nice web application framework. All it takes to have it running is:
```js
var app = require('express')()
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.render('index', { name: 'Roland' })
})
app.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000)
app.set('view engine', 'ejs')
```
`ejs` is a framework for JS templates, which looks for files in a `views` folder, at the root of your project. You can combine JS with pure HTML, just like you can combine ruby with it in erb:
```html
Hello <%= name >!
```
Next, the assets pipeline: [Mincer](https://github.com/nodeca/mincer). I kinda like [Sprockets](https://github.com/rails/sprockets), so this was an obvious choice:
```js
var Mincer = require('mincer')
var pipeline = new Mincer.Environment()
Mincer.logger.use(console)
pipeline.appendPath('lib/assets/javascripts')
pipeline.appendPath('assets/stylesheets')
pipeline.appendPath('assets/images')
app.use('/assets', Mincer.createServer(pipeline))
```
Now you can access your assets directly, without remembering how many `../` you need to add to reach it:
```html
```
Coincidentally enough, Express was inspired by Sinatra, Mincer by Sprockets and ejs is just like erb. Funny thing is that the only one I knowingly picked due to this reason was Mincer.
Next time I will write about routes.
```
Coincidentally enough, Express was inspired by Sinatra, Mincer by Sprockets and ejs is just like erb. Funny thing is that the only one I knowingly picked due to this reason was Mincer.
Next time I will write about routes.