template server

gistfile1.js

var express = require('express'),
	fs = require('fs'),
	path = require('path'),
    server = express.createServer(),
	rexpTEMPLATE = /TEMPLATES\s*=\s*\{\s*\}/,
	rexpJs = /\.js$/i,
	rexpHtml = /\.html$/i,
	VIEWS = '/scripts/views/',
	MODELS = '/scripts/models/';

server.use(MODELS, express.static(path.join(__dirname , MODELS)));
	
server.get(VIEWS + ':name', function (req, res) {
	var fileName = req.param('name'),
		templates = {};
		
	fs.readFile(path.join(__dirname,VIEWS,fileName), 'utf8', function (err, view) {
		if (err) throw err;
		var templateDir = path.join(__dirname,VIEWS,fileName.replace(rexpJs,'.templates'));
		fs.readdir(templateDir, function (err, templateNames) {
			if (err) throw err;
			var n = templateNames.length;
			templateNames.forEach(function(templateName) {
				fs.readFile(path.join(templateDir , templateName), 'utf8', function(err, template) {
					if (err) throw err;
					templates[templateName.replace(rexpHtml,'')] = template;
					n -= 1;
					if (!n) {
						res.send(view.replace(rexpTEMPLATE, 'TEMPLATES = ' + JSON.stringify(templates)));
					}
				});
				
			},this);
		});
	});
});


server.get('/', function (req, res) {
    res.sendfile('index.html');
});

server.get('*', function (req, res) {
    res.redirect('/#' + req.url, 302);
});

server.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000);

This revision of the code assumes the templates for a particular view will be stored in a folder with the same name as the view (without the .js extension) with a .templates extension added. Then, it will add any file it finds there to the TEMPLATES object on the view using the name of each .html file, without the extension.

Another improvement on the previous version is that it primes the loading of the templates all in parallel. In the previous version it did one at a time. Here, it does all the calls to readFile for all the templates all at once and it can accept them in any order they might return.