Passport.js - passing {user: req.user} to template implicitly?

Question

Using Passport.js and Express for multiple projects now, I have noticed myself doing this over and over again, namely specifying { user: req.user } explicitly for my Express routes. Ocassionally I forget to pass it, and suddenly it's like user is not even logged in anymore.

How can I pass a user variable in my routes without having to explicitly write it for each route like this?

app.get = function(req, res, next) {
    res.render('home', {
        title: 'Home',
        user: req.user
    });
};

I think everyauth has such Express helper, but does Passport.js?

Answer 1

You could use a simple middleware for that:

app.use(function(req, res, next) {
  res.locals.user = req.user;
  next();
});

This will make a user variable available in all templates, provided that req.user is populated. Make sure that you declare that middleware after you declare the passport.session middleware, but before any routes.