node.md

Modules

Instead of writing all the code in one giant file, we can split the code into multiple files called modules. Only things that are highly related should go in a module.

This increases maintainability, code reuse and abstraction (blackbox).

Every file in Node is considered a module. Everything declared inside is scoped to the file i.e. they are private.

Node does not give access to the global scope. In order to use the content of a module, we need to export it i.e. make it public.

var message = "hello";
console.log(global.message); // undefined

ES6 Modules

A proper format, unlike the CommonJS convention.

// add.js
export function add(a, b) {
    return a + b;
}

// index.js
import { add } from "./add";

Modules are exported with export and imported with import. We can export one or more objects from a module.

There are default and named exports. We use a default export if there is a single object we want to export.

module

import { Person } from "./person";

// Named export
export function promote() {}

// Default export
export default class Teacher extends Person {
    constructor(name, degree) {
        super(name);
        this.degree = degree;
    }

    teach() {
        console.log("teach");
    }
}

import

import Teacher, { promote } from "./teacher";

// Default -> import ... from "";
// Named -> import { ... } from "";

const teacher = new Teacher("John", "MSc");
teacher.teach();

Browsers

Must include the .js file extension during import.

circle.js

// Implementation detail, not exported
const _radius = new WeakMap(); // private property

// Public interface i.e. exported part
export class Circle {
    constructor(radius) {
        _radius.set(this, radius);
    }

    draw() {
        console.log("Circle with radius" + _radius.get(this));
    }
}

index.js

import { Circle } from "./circle.js"; // Must include the .js file extension

const c = new Circle(10);
c.draw(); // Circle with radius 10

index.html

We need to add the module type in order to avoid the Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token { error, caused by the import curly brace.

<script type="module" src="index.js"></script>

Old formats

Conventions/syntax for defining modules. ES6 natively supports them.

• CommonJS - Loads files synchronously.

Since ES5 doesn't support modules, developers came up with different syntaxes to define them. These are only used in legacy applications.

• AMD (Browser) - Asynchronous Module Definition.
• UMD (Browser / Node)- Universal Module Definition.

CommonJS (Node)

Two problems:

1. Browsers cannot load files synchronously. This is solved via bundling a huge file including everything, even unused things.
2. JS engine cannot tell what a module exports until it runs it.

// add.js
function add(a, b) {
    return a + b;
}
module.exports = add;

// index.js
const add = require("./add"); // Loads synchronously
add(2, 3); // 5

CommonJS defines the:

• module.exports for exporting modules. It represents the object that is exported from a module.
  • module refers to the current module (file).
  • exports is an object and property of module.
• require("./module") for importing modules.

Single class export

When we import the foo.js module, we directly get the Foo class.

class Foo {}

module.exports = Foo;

Multiple class exports

We can import the exports objects and access its properties.

class Foo {}
class Bar {}

module.exports.Foo = Foo;
module.exports.Bar = Bar;

Example

circle.js

// Implementation detail, not exported
const _radius = new WeakMap(); // private property

// Public interface i.e. exported part
class Circle {
    constructor(radius) {
        _radius.set(this, radius);
    }

    draw() {
        console.log("Circle with radius" + _radius.get(this));
    }
}

module.exports = Circle;

index.js

const Circle = require("./circle");

const c = new Circle(10);
c.draw(); // Circle with radius 10