Render template to variable in expressjs

Question

Is there a way to render template to a variable instead to output?

res.render(\'list.ejs\', {
    posts: posts
});

something like this

Answer 1

This wasn't the question originally asked, but based on comments from the OP and others, it seems like the goal is to render a partial via json (jsonp), which is something I just had to do.

It's pretty easy:

app.get('/header', function (req, res)
{
    res.render('partials/header', { session: req.session, layout: null }, function (err, output)
    {
        res.jsonp({ html: output });
    });    
});

Note: In my case, the header partial required the session, and my template library (express-hbs) needed layout: null to render the partial without using the default layout.

You can then call this from Javascript code in the client like any other JSONP endpoint.