How to debug EJS templates in Node/Express

Question

I'm converting PHP templates over to EJS in Node.js/Express. The template files are somewhat complex, so debugging them is not easy. Node isn't giving me any useful information for debugging, so it's making this task near impossible. Here's a sample error message.

SyntaxError: Unexpected string in "app/views/profile/index.ejs"
    at Object.Function (<anonymous>)
    at exports.compile (/Users/Gavin/Web/node_modules/ejs/lib/ejs.js:237:14)
    at Object.exports.render (/Users/Gavin/Web/node_modules/ejs/lib/ejs.js:284:10)
    at View.exports.renderFile [as engine] (/Users/Gavin/Web/node_modules/ejs/lib/ejs.js:318:20)
    at View.render (/Users/Gavin/Web/node_modules/express/lib/view.js:76:8)
    at Function.app.render (/Users/Gavin/Web/node_modules/express/lib/application.js:502:10)
    at ServerResponse.res.render (/Users/Gavin/Web/node_modules/express/lib/response.js:777:7)
    at Object.exports.profile_index [as handle] (/Users/Gavin/Web/app/controllers/routes/profile.js:72:6)
    at next_layer (/Users/Gavin/Web/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:103:13)
    at Object.exports.verify_user [as handle] (/Users/Gavin/Web/app/controllers/routes/account.js:305:10)

Finding the source of such a vague error message is extremely tedious. Is there an easier way to debug EJS files?

Answer 1

I agree that Error Messages are vague! There are some open source applications which are making better Error handling in their applications. I use Mean.Js

Their messages are easier to understand and it actually point to a line of code and give you some hint to correct it. Its easy to work with.

I hope it helps!