Loading of modules with main = path (./lib/) instead of main = path/file (./lib/index.js)

[meaku]

I had an issue today with bundling the validator node-module. I checked the package.json and the problem is how the main-file is referenced:

"main"          : "./lib",

I changed it locally to lib/index.js and it works.
I think it's valid to reference main via path instead of a full-file-path, so webpack should resolve it the same way node does it.

And for testing with the validator module: Bundling the validator module doesn't work completely because it's referencing the native node-module "net". It removed this dep and it works completely.

[sokra]

I'll fix it.

For the net dependency: You can offer a fake net module in the web_modules folder so validator find it.

For the validator module you may provide also a isIP method in the fake module.

// validator/lib/validators.js
// ...
    isIP: function(str) {
        // net.isIp requires node >= 0.3.0
        var modernNode = typeof net.isIP === 'function';
        var method = modernNode? validators.isIPNet : validators.isIPManual;
        return method(str);
    },
    isIPNet: function(str) {
        return net.isIP(str) !== 0;
    },
// ...

[sokra]

It should work now.

[meaku]

Awesome! That was fast ;)
When will you publish a new version to npm?

And for the web_module thing: I've sent a pull request for node-validator which removed the net-dependency. I was aware of the web_module way but fixing it at the module itself seemed to make more sense, because other people might want to use the module with webpack and browserify as well.

[sokra]

I've publish it already, but it wasn't a change to webpack but to a dependency of webpack enhanced-resolve. That module care about the resolving process.

Therefore webpack provides a syntax for module authors to provide different versions of node.js and webpack. xxx.js will be replaced with xxx.web.js or xxx.webpack.js.

validator could be organized this way:

// validators.js
var isIP = require("./isIP");

// isIP.js
module.exports = require("net").isIP;

// isIP.web.js
module.exports = function(str) {
 // add some browser replacement here
}

I proposed it for browserify here already: browserify/browserify#174