How to pass variable from back-end to front-end in node.js ejs template

Question

I render my page like this:

response.render('index', {
    data: list // the `list` is an array variable
});

And in the front page, I want store the data as globe variable, so I tried:

<script>
   window.app = <%= data %>
</script>

but the result is :

window.app = [object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

So how can I do it in right way?

Answer 1

You can stringify the data as JSON, which is a subset of javascript, and will be parsed as the exact data structure. Also use <%- expression %> to make sure your javascript won't be escaped.

<script>
   window.app = <%- JSON.stringify(data) %>
</script>

Note that this won't include functions and it will throw on cyclic data structures. But stuff like [{ a : { b : 3 }}] should work fine. Dates are also converted to strings.