On my node.js server I have the following code:
//Generate a token
var token = capability.generateToken();
//Serve the page
var html = fs.readFileSync('learn.htm').toString();
response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/html"});
response.end(html);
}
Now on the client side (in learn.htm) I want to access the token variable. My question is, how do I pass the variable to the client in the response? There must be a simple way of doing this but I'm struggling to wrap my head around it.
You should look into using a template language for your HTML. There are several available, just search for node.js template language or using npm:
npm search templates
You could send some JavaScript to the client which sets the variable. Or you could store it in a data- attribute e.g. of the body tag (<body data-token="...">) and then access it via $('body').data('token') in case you have jQuery on the client side.
If you need it for a form you can also store it in a hidden input field.
.replace('{TOKEN}', token) and then put {TOKEN} in your HTML file. For a single value that's actually fine, but if you need more, better use a template engine.Put something like:
<input type="hidden" value="{{TOKEN}}">
in your HTML, then replace the {{TOKEN}} string with the token at each request.
Then use JS like:
var token = $("input#csrf_token").val();
to get the value in your client script.
Edit: I haven't used it myself, but nowjs (http://nowjs.com/) is a more general way of getting your server's variables to the client. It's probably not what you want for passing a simple token, but it might be of interest.
