Take the 2-minute tour ×

I ran into a very basic problem but I can't seem to find the answer to it. I am working with node.js, express and I am just trying to pass a local variable into the view like this:

  res.render("index", {locals: {
    title: "Blog",

My index view is equally simple:

h1= title

But for some reason, I keep getting this error as if the local variable is never passed:

 500 ReferenceError: /home/spartan/Node_Projects/test/views/index.jade:1 > 1| h1= title 2| title is not defined
> 1| h1= title
  2| title is not defined

I don't know what I am doing wrong! Here are the versions I am using:

  • Express: 3.0.0alpha1
  • node.JS: 0.6.14
  • Jade: 0.24.0

Someone please help so I can actually move on to learning node + express!

share|improve this question
add comment

3 Answers

up vote 27 down vote accepted

You should pass the variable without the locals. This is probably new in express 3.0.0

res.render("index", {title: "Blog"});
share|improve this answer
Thank you so much, this was it! I was just following an old tutorial and had no idea what was wrong.. –  aeyang Apr 18 '12 at 17:00
add comment

h1 = title tries to evaluate it locally, the title you sent and that one is different. To understand the difference see:

- var title = 'my title' // - allows writing code
h1 = title

The one you should use is:

h1 #{title}
share|improve this answer
Thank you for telling me that, I understand that difference now. I was so sure that was it, but unfortunately, when I changed my view to just h1 #{title} it gave me the exact same error message... Any ideas? –  aeyang Apr 18 '12 at 3:34
add comment

Here is a response that I made few hours ago to a smiliar question (+ deal with layout). It shows how to pass data when rendering. (Express 3.0.0 complient)

share|improve this answer
Thank you, your response had the answer I was looking for as well. –  aeyang Apr 18 '12 at 17:09
add comment

Your Answer


