Does anyone know how to get the name of a module in node.js / javascript
so lets say you do
var RandomModule = require ("fs")
.
.
.
console.log (RandomModule.name)
// -> "fs"
If you are trying to trace your dependencies, you can try using require hooks.
Create a file called myRequireHook.js
var Module = require('module');
var originalRequire = Module.prototype.require;
Module.prototype.require = function(path) {
console.log('*** Importing lib ' + path + ' from module ' + this.filename);
return originalRequire(path);
};
This code will hook every require call and log it into your console.
Not exactly what you asked first, but maybe it helps you better.
And you need to call just once in your main .js file (the one you start with node main.js).
So in your main.js, you just do that:
require('./myRequireHook');
var fs = require('fs');
var myOtherModule = require('./myOtherModule');
It will trace require in your other modules as well.
This is the way transpilers like babel work. They hook every require call and transform your code before load.
I don't know why you would need that, but there is a way.
The module variable, which is loaded automatically in every node.js file, contains an array called children. This array contains every child module loaded by require in your current file.
This way, you need to strict compare your loaded reference with the cached object version in this array in order to discover which element of the array corresponds to your module.
Look this sample:
var pieces = require('../src/routes/headers');
var childModuleId = discoverChildModuleId(pieces, module);
console.log(childModuleId);
function discoverChildModuleId(object, moduleObj) {
"use strict";
var childModule = moduleObj.children.find(function(child) {
return object === child.exports;
});
return childModule && childModule.id;
}
This code will find the correspondence in children object and bring its id.
I put module as a parameter of my function so you can export it to a file. Otherwise, it would show you modules of where discoverChildModule function resides (if it is in the same file won't make any difference, but if exported it will).
Notes:
Module ids have the full path name. So don't expect finding ../src/routes/headers. You will find something like: /Users/david/git/...
My algorithm won't detect exported attributes like var Schema = require('mongoose').Schema. It is possible to make a function which is capable of this, but it will suffer many issues.
From within a module (doesn't work at the REPL) you can...
console.log( global.process.mainModule.filename );
And you'll get '/home/ubuntu/workspace/src/admin.js'
Related
Currently I am just passing my fileNamePrefix like that:
let shortid = require('shortid');
let fileNamePrefix = shortid.generate();
module1.run(fileNamePrefix); //generating a file based on `fileNamePrefix` `xxxxx.f1.json`
module2.run(fileNamePrefix); //generating a file based on `fileNamePrefix` `xxxxx.f2.json`
module3.run(fileNamePrefix); //generating a file based on `fileNamePrefix` `xxxxx.f3.js
Which I think in not quite right, I might need to pass more things to my modules later on, so I want to avoid to pass that as function params.
What is the best way to approach that in nodejs?
Will global object like global.fileNamePrefix = shortid.generate(); will do in that case or would you approach that different? I just read that global is not good...
You can use either singleton approach or approach suggested by #Сергей Тертичный
Singleton :
//shortid.js
var fileSingleTon = module.exports = {
fileNamePrefix: null,
getFileNamePrefix: function() {
return fileSingleTon.fileNamePrefix || fileSingleTon.generate()
},
generate: function() {
console.log('generating..');
return fileSingleTon.fileNamePrefix = 'your_file_prefix';
}
}
//module1.js
var fileNamePrefix = require('./shortid').getFileNamePrefix();
//do stuff for module1
//module2/js
var fileNamePrefix = require('./shortid').getFileNamePrefix();
//do stuff for module1
and so on..
Even now you are calling require('./shortid').getFileNamePrefix(); multiple times, generate function is getting called only once.
Node Caching approach :
Consider you have shortid.js as following :
// A: block of code to do some manipulations
// B : module.exports = manipulation result.
So basically in node js "modules" core module which is responsible for giving us module.export functionality executes whatever is here above export(in abode example the part A) only for the first time and caches it even if you have required in in multiple other files. However, it only executes the functions or block of code in every require which is inside export. So you can use this approach where your A block will have login to generate fileNamePrefix and then B just returns it.
Just create module like that:
// unicname.js
let shortid = require('shortid');
let fileName = shortid.generate();
module.exports = {fname: fileName};
//module1.js
const {fname} = require('./unicname.js');
....
Since the node.js caching the modules the value will be calculated only one time so you can get same value in all your modules.
So, I'm a big fan of creating global namespaces in javascript. For example, if my app is named Xyz I normally have an object XYZ which I fill with properties and nested objects, for an example:
XYZ.Resources.ErrorMessage // = "An error while making request, please try again"
XYZ.DAL.City // = { getAll: function() { ... }, getById: function(id) { .. } }
XYZ.ViewModels.City // = { .... }
XYZ.Models.City // = { .... }
I sort of picked this up while working on a project with Knockout, and I really like it because there are no wild references to some objects declare in god-knows-where. Everything is in one place.
Now. This is ok for front-end, however, I'm currently developing a basic skeleton for a project which will start in a month, and it uses Node.
What I wanted was, instead of all the requires in .js files, I'd have a single object ('XYZ') which would hold all requires in one place. For example:
Instead of:
// route.js file
var cityModel = require('./models/city');
var cityService = require('./services/city');
app.get('/city', function() { ...........});
I would make an object:
XYZ.Models.City = require('./models/city');
XYZ.DAL.City = require('./services/city');
And use it like:
// route.js file
var cityModel = XYZ.Models.City;
var cityService = XYZ.DAL.City;
app.get('/city', function() { ...........});
I don't really have in-depth knowledge but all of the requires get cached and are served, if cached, from memory so re-requiring in multiple files isn't a problem.
Is this an ok workflow, or should I just stick to the standard procedure of referencing dependencies?
edit: I forgot to say, would this sort-of-factory pattern block the main thread, or delay the starting of the server? I just need to know what are the downsides... I don't mind the requires in code, but I just renamed a single folder and had to go through five files to change the paths... Which is really inconvenient.
I think that's a bad idea, because you are going to serve a ton of modules every single time, and you may not need them always. Your namespaced object will get quite monstrous. require will check the module cache first, so I'd use standard requires for each request / script that you need on the server.
This is my second weekend playing with Node, so this is a bit newbie.
I have a js file full of common utilities that provide stuff that JavaScript doesn't. Severely clipped, it looks like this:
module.exports = {
Round: function(num, dec) {
return Math.round(num * Math.pow(10,dec)) / Math.pow(10,dec);
}
};
Many other custom code modules - also included via require() statements - need to call the utility functions. They make calls like this:
module.exports = {
Init: function(pie) {
// does lots of other stuff, but now needs to round a number
// using the custom rounding fn provided in the common util code
console.log(util.Round(pie, 2)); // ReferenceError: util is not defined
}
};
The node.js file that is actually run is very simple (well, for this example). It just require()'s in the code and kicks off the custom code's Init() fn, like this:
var util = require("./utilities.js");
var customCode = require("./programCode.js");
customCode.Init(Math.PI);
Well, this doesn't work, I get a "ReferenceError: util is not defined" coming from the customCode. I know everything in each required file is "private" and this is why the error is occuring, but I also know that the variable holding the utility code object has GOT to be stored somewhere, perhaps hanging off of global?
I searched through global but didn't see any reference to utils in there. I was thinking of using something like global.utils.Round in the custom code.
So the question is, given that the utility code could be referred to as anything really (var u, util, or utility), how in heck can I organize this so that other code modules can see these utilities?
There are at least two ways to solve this:
If you need something from another module in a file, just require it. That's the easy one.
Provide something which actually builds the module for you. I will explain this in a second.
However, your current approach won't work as the node.js module system doesn't provide globals as you might expect them from other languages. Except for the things exported with module.exports you get nothing from the required module, and the required module doesn't know anything of the requiree's environment.
Just require it
To avoid the gap mentioned above, you need to require the other module beforehand:
// -- file: ./programCode.js
var util = require(...);
module.exports = {
Init: function(pie) {
console.log(util.Round(pie, 2));
}
};
requires are cached, so don't think too much about performance at this point.
Keep it flexible
In this case you don't directly export the contents of your module. Instead, you provide a constructor that will create the actual content. This enables you to give some additional arguments, for example another version of your utility library:
// -- file: ./programCode.js
module.exports = {
create: function(util){
return {
Init: function(pie) {
console.log(util.Round(pie, 2));
}
}
}
};
// --- other file
var util = require(...);
var myModule = require('./module').create(util);
As you can see this will create a new object when you call create. As such it will consume more memory as the first approach. Thus I recommend you to just require() things.
I tried this:
// mod.js
var a = 1;
this.b = 2;
exports.c = 3;
// test.js
var mod = require('./mod.js');
console.log(mod.a); // undefined
console.log(mod.b); // 2
console.log(mod.c); // 3, so this === exports?
So I image that require() may be implement like this:
var require = function (file) {
var exports = {};
var run = function (file) {
// include "file" here and run
};
run.apply(exports, [file]);
return exports;
}
Is that right? Please help me to understand require(), or where can I find the source code. Thanks!
Source code is here. exports/require are not keywords, but global variables. Your main script is wrapped before start in a function which has all the globals like require, process etc in its context.
Note that while module.js itself is using require(), that's a different require function, and it is defined in the file called "node.js"
Side effect of above: it's perfectly fine to have "return" statement in the middle of your module (not belonging to any function), effectively "commenting out" rest of the code
var mod = require('./mod.js');
The require is a function that takes one argument called path, in this case the path is ./mod.js
when the require is invoked, a sequences of tasks are happened:
call Module.prototype.require function declared in lib/module.js which assert that the path exists and was a string
call Module._load which is a function in lib/module.js that resolve the file through Module._resolveFilename(request, parent, isMain),
the Module._resolveFilename function is called and checks if the module is native (The native modules are returned by NativeModule function defined in lib/internal/bootstrap_node.js),
if yes it will return the module else it checks the number of characters of the parh (Must 2 character at least) and some characters (the path must started by ./)
via Module._resolveLookupPaths function defined in defined in lib/internal/bootstrap_node.js
check the directory that contains the file
If the path contains an extension (in our example yes: mod.js), the basename function defined in lib/path.js checks that the extension is "js"
then it will create a new module for the file given in argument var module = new Module(filename, parent);
the content will be compiled via v8 through the function NativeModule.prototype.compile defined in lib/internal/bootstrap_node.js
the NativeModule.wrap defined in lib/internal/bootstrap_node.js takes the javascript content compiled of mod.js and wraps it : It wraps it in some other code that makes all this work.
So the code you've written in mod.js is wrapped in a function expression. that means everything you write in node is run in V8
a module.exports is what's returned
Andrey showed the source code, but if you also wonder how to use it, the easy and simple explanation is here (http://nodejs.org/api/modules.html).
These were two good examples for me.
//foo.js, multiple methods
var circle = require('./circle.js');
console.log( 'The area of a circle of radius 4 is ' + circle.area(4));
//circle.js
var PI = Math.PI;
exports.area = function (r) {
return PI * r * r;
};
exports.circumference = function (r) {
return 2 * PI * r;
};
//bar.js
var square = require('./square.js');
var mySquare = square(2);
console.log('The area of my square is ' + mySquare.area());
//square.js, single method
module.exports = function(width) {
return {
area: function() {
return width * width;
}
};
}
My favourite pattern is
(function (controller) {
controller.init = function (app) {
app.get("/", function (req, res) {
res.render("index", {});
});
};
})(module.exports);
I dig a little more of nodejs source code/2/ and make a sequence diagram/1/, hope this could give you a intuitive overview. There is another article http://fredkschott.com/post/2014/06/require-and-the-module-system/ which also explain the require() mechanism in a easy way, go through this article first could help you to understand the diagram quickly.
Ref:
/1/ diagram source repo: https://github.com/z1yuan/nodejs.git
/2/ https://github.com/nodejs/node-v0.x-archive.git
Try This.
This is a snippet of what I used to create the same functionality as Node.js
/*
FILE: require.js
*/
/*
This is the file used
*/
window.require = function(src, ret) {
if (src === 'jsmediatags') {
src = 'https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jsmediatags/3.9.5/jsmediatags.js';
};
var d = document.createElement('script');
d.src = src;
document.head.appendChild(d);
var fullURL = src.split('://');
var neededURL = fullURL[1];
var nameParts = neededURL.split('/');
var nameNUM = nameParts.length - 1;
var fileName = nameParts[nameNUM];
var g = fileName.split('.');
var global = g[0];
if (ret === true) {
return window[global]
};
};
See if this works, and to add more files to its library, just type more in. (if (src===yourfilenamehere) { src = "path/to/your/file" }
The module loading mechanism in Node.js is caching the modules on the first require call. It means that every time you use require('xyz-module') you will get the same instance of xyz-module, which ensures that the modules are singleton-like and have the same state across your application.
You can load native modules and path references from your file system or installed modules. If the identifier passed to the require function is not a native module or a file reference (beginning with /, ../, ./ or similar), then Node.js will look for installed modules. It will walk your file system looking for the referenced module in the node_modules folder. It starts from the parent directory of your current module and then moves to the parent directory until it finds the right module or until the root of the file system is reached.
The source is available here next to the downloads : http://nodejs.org/ exports/require are keywords, I don't think they are coded in javascript directly. Node is coded in C++ , javascript is just a scripting shell around the C++ core.
There are some third party Javascript libraries that have some functionality I would like to use in a Node.js server. (Specifically I want to use a QuadTree javascript library that I found.) But these libraries are just straightforward .js files and not "Node.js libraries".
As such, these libraries don't follow the exports.var_name syntax that Node.js expects for its modules. As far as I understand that means when you do module = require('module_name'); or module = require('./path/to/file.js'); you'll end up with a module with no publicly accessible functions, etc.
My question then is "How do I load an arbitrary javascript file into Node.js such that I can utilize its functionality without having to rewrite it so that it does do exports?"
I'm very new to Node.js so please let me know if there is some glaring hole in my understanding of how it works.
EDIT: Researching into things more and I now see that the module loading pattern that Node.js uses is actually part of a recently developed standard for loading Javascript libraries called CommonJS. It says this right on the module doc page for Node.js, but I missed that until now.
It may end up being that the answer to my question is "wait until your library's authors get around to writing a CommonJS interface or do it your damn self."
Here's what I think is the 'rightest' answer for this situation.
Say you have a script file called quadtree.js.
You should build a custom node_module that has this sort of directory structure...
./node_modules/quadtree/quadtree-lib/
./node_modules/quadtree/quadtree-lib/quadtree.js
./node_modules/quadtree/quadtree-lib/README
./node_modules/quadtree/quadtree-lib/some-other-crap.js
./node_modules/quadtree/index.js
Everything in your ./node_modules/quadtree/quadtree-lib/ directory are files from your 3rd party library.
Then your ./node_modules/quadtree/index.js file will just load that library from the filesystem and do the work of exporting things properly.
var fs = require('fs');
// Read and eval library
filedata = fs.readFileSync('./node_modules/quadtree/quadtree-lib/quadtree.js','utf8');
eval(filedata);
/* The quadtree.js file defines a class 'QuadTree' which is all we want to export */
exports.QuadTree = QuadTree
Now you can use your quadtree module like any other node module...
var qt = require('quadtree');
qt.QuadTree();
I like this method because there's no need to go changing any of the source code of your 3rd party library--so it's easier to maintain. All you need to do on upgrade is look at their source code and ensure that you are still exporting the proper objects.
There is a much better method than using eval: the vm module.
For example, here is my execfile module, which evaluates the script at path in either context or the global context:
var vm = require("vm");
var fs = require("fs");
module.exports = function(path, context) {
context = context || {};
var data = fs.readFileSync(path);
vm.runInNewContext(data, context, path);
return context;
}
And it can be used like this:
> var execfile = require("execfile");
> // `someGlobal` will be a global variable while the script runs
> var context = execfile("example.js", { someGlobal: 42 });
> // And `getSomeGlobal` defined in the script is available on `context`:
> context.getSomeGlobal()
42
> context.someGlobal = 16
> context.getSomeGlobal()
16
Where example.js contains:
function getSomeGlobal() {
return someGlobal;
}
The big advantage of this method is that you've got complete control over the global variables in the executed script: you can pass in custom globals (via context), and all the globals created by the script will be added to context. Debugging is also easier because syntax errors and the like will be reported with the correct file name.
The simplest way is: eval(require('fs').readFileSync('./path/to/file.js', 'utf8'));
This works great for testing in the interactive shell.
AFAIK, that is indeed how modules must be loaded.
However, instead of tacking all exported functions onto the exports object, you can also tack them onto this (what would otherwise be the global object).
So, if you want to keep the other libraries compatible, you can do this:
this.quadTree = function () {
// the function's code
};
or, when the external library already has its own namespace, e.g. jQuery (not that you can use that in a server-side environment):
this.jQuery = jQuery;
In a non-Node environment, this would resolve to the global object, thus making it a global variable... which it already was. So it shouldn't break anything.
Edit:
James Herdman has a nice writeup about node.js for beginners, which also mentions this.
I'm not sure if I'll actually end up using this because it's a rather hacky solution, but one way around this is to build a little mini-module importer like this...
In the file ./node_modules/vanilla.js:
var fs = require('fs');
exports.require = function(path,names_to_export) {
filedata = fs.readFileSync(path,'utf8');
eval(filedata);
exported_obj = {};
for (i in names_to_export) {
to_eval = 'exported_obj[names_to_export[i]] = '
+ names_to_export[i] + ';'
eval(to_eval);
}
return exported_obj;
}
Then when you want to use your library's functionality you'll need to manually choose which names to export.
So for a library like the file ./lib/mylibrary.js...
function Foo() { //Do something... }
biz = "Blah blah";
var bar = {'baz':'filler'};
When you want to use its functionality in your Node.js code...
var vanilla = require('vanilla');
var mylibrary = vanilla.require('./lib/mylibrary.js',['biz','Foo'])
mylibrary.Foo // <-- this is Foo()
mylibrary.biz // <-- this is "Blah blah"
mylibrary.bar // <-- this is undefined (because we didn't export it)
Don't know how well this would all work in practice though.
I was able to make it work by updating their script, very easily, simply adding module.exports = where appropriate...
For example, I took their file and I copied to './libs/apprise.js'. Then where it starts with
function apprise(string, args, callback){
I assigned the function to module.exports = thus:
module.exports = function(string, args, callback){
Thus I'm able to import the library into my code like this:
window.apprise = require('./libs/apprise.js');
And I was good to go. YMMV, this was with webpack.
A simple include(filename) function with better error messaging (stack, filename etc.) for eval, in case of errors:
var fs = require('fs');
// circumvent nodejs/v8 "bug":
// https://github.com/PythonJS/PythonJS/issues/111
// http://perfectionkills.com/global-eval-what-are-the-options/
// e.g. a "function test() {}" will be undefined, but "test = function() {}" will exist
var globalEval = (function() {
var isIndirectEvalGlobal = (function(original, Object) {
try {
// Does `Object` resolve to a local variable, or to a global, built-in `Object`,
// reference to which we passed as a first argument?
return (1, eval)('Object') === original;
} catch (err) {
// if indirect eval errors out (as allowed per ES3), then just bail out with `false`
return false;
}
})(Object, 123);
if (isIndirectEvalGlobal) {
// if indirect eval executes code globally, use it
return function(expression) {
return (1, eval)(expression);
};
} else if (typeof window.execScript !== 'undefined') {
// if `window.execScript exists`, use it
return function(expression) {
return window.execScript(expression);
};
}
// otherwise, globalEval is `undefined` since nothing is returned
})();
function include(filename) {
file_contents = fs.readFileSync(filename, "utf8");
try {
//console.log(file_contents);
globalEval(file_contents);
} catch (e) {
e.fileName = filename;
keys = ["columnNumber", "fileName", "lineNumber", "message", "name", "stack"]
for (key in keys) {
k = keys[key];
console.log(k, " = ", e[k])
}
fo = e;
//throw new Error("include failed");
}
}
But it even gets dirtier with nodejs: you need to specify this:
export NODE_MODULE_CONTEXTS=1
nodejs tmp.js
Otherwise you cannot use global variables in files included with include(...).