Node says Jade has no method "renderFile", why?

Question

I installed jade (npm install jade) and went over to their github page to grab some examples. This is what I wanted to execute:

code.jade:

- var title = "Things"
h1= title
ul#users
  - each user, name in users
    - if (user.isA == "ferret")
      li(class: 'user-' + name) #{name} is just a ferret
    - else
      li(class: 'user-' + name) #{name} #{user.email}

code.js:

var jade = require('jade');

var options = {
    locals: {
        users: {
            tj: { age: 23, email: '[email protected]', isA: 'human' },
            tobi: { age: 1, email: '[email protected]', isA: 'ferret' }
        }
    }
};

console.log(jade)

jade.renderFile('code.jade', options, function(err, html){
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log(html);
});

I saved those files in their own folder, cd'd my way there and executed "node code.js". However, node throws an error and says that Jade has no method "renderFile"! Can you tell me what am I doing wrong and what should I do to fix it?

full error message:

node.js:134
        throw e; // process.nextTick error, or 'error' event on first tick
        ^
TypeError: Object #<Object> has no method 'renderFile'
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/yann/javascript/jade/code.js:18:6)
    at Module._compile (module.js:402:26)
    at Object..js (module.js:408:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:334:31)
    at Function._load (module.js:293:12)
    at Array.<anonymous> (module.js:421:10)
    at EventEmitter._tickCallback (node.js:126:26)

Answer 1

It looks like newer versions of Jade use a different API, there is no more 'renderFile' method. Take a look at the 'Public API' section on here: https://github.com/visionmedia/jade

Something like this is probably what you want. Just remember you only need to read the file once. If you are doing it dynamically, be sure not to read it synchronously.

var jade = require('jade');
var fs = require('fs');

var jadetemplate = jade.compile(fs.readFileSync('code.jade', 'utf8'));

var html = jadetemplate({
  users: {
    tj: { age: 23, email: '[email protected]', isA: 'human' },
    tobi: { age: 1, email: '[email protected]', isA: 'ferret' }
  }
});

console.log(html);

Update

This answer was valid when it was written, however renderFile was added back in several months later in 92c314, so it may be used now.