View Data

View data is passed to your root EJS template, not to the frontend component. This is useful for server-rendered content like page titles, meta tags, or other HTML that needs to be rendered before the JavaScript loads.

Basic Usage

Use sails.inertia.viewData() to share data with the root template:

sails.inertia.viewData('title', 'Dashboard - My App')
sails.inertia.viewData('description', 'View your account dashboard')

In Actions

You can set view data from within your action:

module.exports = {
  exits: {
    success: { responseType: 'inertia' }
  },

  fn: async function () {
    const user = await User.findOne({ id: this.req.session.userId })

    sails.inertia.viewData('title', `${user.fullName} - Profile`)
    sails.inertia.viewData('ogImage', user.avatarUrl)

    return {
      page: 'profile/show',
      props: { user }
    }
  }
}

Via Response Object

You can also pass view data directly in the response:

return {
  page: 'users/show',
  props: { user },
  viewData: {
    title: `${user.fullName} - Profile`,
    description: user.bio
  }
}

Accessing in Templates

View data is available as local variables in your EJS template:

html

<!-- views/app.ejs -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title><%= typeof title !== 'undefined' ? title : 'My App' %></title>
    <meta
      name="description"
      content="<%= typeof description !== 'undefined' ? description : 'Default description' %>"
    />
    <% if (typeof ogImage !== 'undefined') { %>
    <meta property="og:image" content="<%= ogImage %>" />
    <% } %> <%- shipwright.styles() %>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="app" data-page="<%- JSON.stringify(page) %>"></div>
    <%- shipwright.scripts() %>
  </body>
</html>

Common Use Cases

SEO Meta Tags

sails.inertia.viewData('title', 'Blog Post Title')
sails.inertia.viewData('description', 'Post excerpt...')
sails.inertia.viewData('ogImage', '/images/blog/post-cover.jpg')

Structured Data

sails.inertia.viewData(
  'structuredData',
  JSON.stringify({
    '@context': 'https://schema.org',
    '@type': 'Article',
    headline: post.title,
    author: post.author.name
  })
)

Custom Head Scripts

sails.inertia.viewData('analyticsId', 'UA-XXXXX-Y')

View Data vs Props

Feature	`viewData()`	`props`
Available in	EJS template	Frontend component
Rendered	Server-side	Client-side
Use case	SEO, meta tags	Component data

Use viewData() for content that needs to be in the initial HTML (SEO, meta tags). Use props for data your frontend components need.

View Data ​

Basic Usage ​

In Actions ​

Via Response Object ​

Accessing in Templates ​

Common Use Cases ​

SEO Meta Tags ​

Structured Data ​

Custom Head Scripts ​

View Data vs Props ​