Server side rendering & population

[horak]

Can I render and populate a dropdown server-side using a template engine like (pug)?

I think I'm missing a few pieces of the puzzle. Any help would be appreciated. Here is some pseudocode.

server.pug

select#dropdown
  each option in dropdown_options
    option(id=option.id data-count=option.count)=option.title

client.js (excluding the options property)

new TomSelect('#dropdown', {
  onItemAdd:function(){
    this.refreshOptions();
  },
  valueField: 'id',
  searchField: 'title',
  render:{
    option:function(data,escape){
      return '<div class="d-flex"><span>' + escape(data['title']) + '</span><span class="ms-auto text-muted">' + escape(data.count) + '</span></div>';
    },
    item:function(data,escape){
      return '<div>' + escape(data['title']) + '</div>';
    }
  }
})