Sadly, there is no step-by-step wizard to configure the boilerplate code just for your use case. So, use what you need, simply delete what you don't need.
**Note**: If you are new to Node.js or Express framework,
I highly recommend watching [Node.js and Express 101](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN0JlMZCtNU) screencast that teaches Node and Express from scratch.
**Note:** There is no difference how you name or structure your views. You could place all your templates in a top-level `views` directory without having a nested folder structure, if that makes things easier for you. Just don't forget to update `extends ../layout` and corresponding `res.render()` method in controllers. For smaller apps, I find having a flat folder structure to be easier to work with.
**Note 2:** Although your main template - **layout.jade** only knows about `/css/styles.css` file, you should be editing **styles.less** stylesheet. Express will automatically generate **styles.css** whenever there are changes in LESS file. This is done via [less-middleware](https://github.com/emberfeather/less.js-middleware) node.js library.
When I first created this project I didn't have any experience with Handlebars. Since then I have worked on Ember.js apps and got myself familiar with the Handlebars syntax. While it is true Handlebars is easier, because it looks like good old HTML, I have no regrets picking Jade over Handlebars. First off, it's the default template engine in Express, so someone who has built Express apps in the past already knows it. Secondly, I find `extends` and `block` to be indispensable, which as far as I know, Handlebars does not have out of the box. And lastly, subjectively speaking, Jade looks much cleaner and shorter than Handlebars, or any non-HAML style for that matter.
### Why do you have all routes in app.js?
For the sake of simplicity. While there might be a better approach, such as passing `app` context to each controller as outlined in this [blog](http://timstermatic.github.io/blog/2013/08/17/a-simple-mvc-framework-with-node-and-express/), I find such style to be confusing for beginners. It took me a long time to grasp the concept of `exports` and `module.exports`, let alone having a global `app` reference in other files. That to me is a backward thinking. The `app.js` is the "center of the universe", it should be the one referencing models, routes, controllers, etc. When working solo I actually prefer to have everything in `app.js` as is the case with this REST API server for [ember-sass-express-starter's app.js file](https://github.com/sahat/ember-sass-express-starter/blob/master/app.js). That makes things so much simpler!
- Concatenate and minify all assets via Express middleware if possible, otherwise Gulp.js. Because even with caching enabled, there is at least 50-80ms delay for each static file request (On Heroku).
If something is unclear, confusing, or needs to be refactored, please let me know. Pull requests are always welcome, but due to the opinionated nature of this project, I cannot accept every pull request. Please open an issue before submitting a pull request.
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