Request: add `main` property, or empty index.js

[lennym]

I'm trying to build some modules which depend on this, but since it can't be found with require.resolve() as it has no canonical file it's proving quite difficult to reliably resolve the install location to do fs.readFile etc on it. Looking in ./node_modules works in most cases, but not if the parent project already has this as a dependency.

Either adding a main property in the package.json to point to the template file (ideal scenario for me), or adding a blank (or maybe log a usage warning) index.js file in the root will allow require.resolve('govuk_template_mustache'); to successfully resolve the install location, and so make it easier to build other modules which sit on top of this without needing additional caveats.

[lennym]

Having hacked away at a few things for a while I managed to discover that

require.resolve('govuk_template_mustache/views/layouts/govuk_template.html');

worked ok.

However, it would be nice if the location of the template was defiend in the "main" property in package.json anyway just to make it a little easier to find, and more robust of the file structure were liable to change in future.

Thanks.

[tombye]

@alexmuller @easternbloc could you feed into this? It sounds like Lenny's request is associated with conventions around usage of package.json so be good to hear your opinions on this change (my experience of this is limited).

[lennym]

Thanks @tombye

I had a few discussions on this topic on #nodejs irc channel, and general consensus was that "this is weird because it's not a node module and you'd never require it", so I'm not sure there's a lot of best practice.

Generally speaking though, the "main" property in the package.json should point to "the thing" for the module, so in this case, I don't think it's inappropriate for that to point to the template.

[easternbloc]

@lennym IMHO I think it should point at the "main" property. If you put in a pull request for it we can merge that for you. The npm module is generated here so you'll need to edit the main property on that project. https://github.com/alphagov/govuk_frontend_toolkit_npm

[lennym]

@easternbloc - I think you mean https://github.com/alphagov/govuk_template, but sure...

[easternbloc]

^^ that