JSTransform

A simple utility for pluggable JS syntax transforms using the esprima parser.

• Makes it simple to write and plug-in syntax transformations
• Makes it simple to coalesce multiple syntax transformations in a single pass of the AST
• Gives complete control over the formatting of the output on a per-transformation basis
• Supports source map generation
• Comes pre-bundled with a small set of (optional) ES6 -> ES5 transforms

NOTE: If you're looking for a library for writing new greenfield JS transformations, consider looking at the Recast library instead of jstransform. We are still actively supporting jstransform (and intend to for the foreseeable future), but longer term we would like to direct efforts toward Recast. Recast does a far better job of performantly scaling to support a multi-pass JS transformation pipeline, and this is important when attempting to apply many transformations to a source file.

Examples

Using a pre-bundled or existing transform:

/**
 * Reads a source file that may (or may not) contain ES6 classes, transforms it
 * to ES5 compatible code using the pre-bundled ES6 class visitors, and prints 
 * out the result.
 */
var es6ClassVisitors = require('jstransform/visitors/es6-class-visitors').visitorList;
var fs = require('fs');
var jstransform = require('jstransform');

var originalFileContents = fs.readFileSync('path/to/original/file.js', 'utf-8');

var transformedFileData = jstransform.transform(
  es6ClassVisitors,
  originalFileContents
);

console.log(transformedFileData.code);

Using multiple pre-bundled or existing transforms at once:

/**
 * Reads a source file that may (or may not) contain ES6 classes *or* arrow
 * functions, transforms them to ES5 compatible code using the pre-bundled ES6 
 * visitors, and prints out the result.
 */
var es6ArrowFuncVisitors = require('jstransform/visitors/es6-arrow-function-visitors').visitorList;
var es6ClassVisitors = require('jstransform/visitors/es6-class-visitors').visitorList;
var jstransform = require('jstransform');

// Normally you'd read this from the filesystem, but I'll just use a string here
// to simplify the example.
var originalFileContents = "var a = (param1) => param1; class FooClass {}";

var transformedFileData = jstransform.transform(
  es6ClassVisitors.concat(es6ArrowFuncVisitors),
  originalFileContents
);

// var a = function(param1)  {return param1;}; function FooClass(){"use strict";}
console.log(transformedFileData.code);

Writing a simple custom transform:

/**
 * Creates a custom transformation visitor that prefixes all calls to the
 * `eval()` function with a call to `alert()` saying how much of a clown you are
 * for using eval.
 */
var jstransform = require('jstransform');
var utils = require('jstransform/src/utils');

var Syntax = jstransform.Syntax;

function visitEvalCallExpressions(traverse, node, path, state) {
  // Appends an alert() call to the output buffer *before* the visited node
  // (in this case the eval call) is appended to the output buffer
  utils.append('alert("...eval?...really?...");', state);

  // Now we copy the eval expression to the output buffer from the original
  // source
  utils.catchup(node.range[1], state);
}
visitEvalCallExpressions.test = function(node, path, state) {
  return node.type === Syntax.CallExpression
         && node.callee.type === Syntax.Identifier
         && node.callee.name === 'eval';
};

// Normally you'd read this from the filesystem, but I'll just use a string here
// to simplify the example.
var originalFileContents = "eval('foo');";

var transformedFileData = jstransform.transform(
  [visitEvalCallExpressions], // Multiple visitors may be applied at once, so an
                              // array is always expected for the first argument
  originalFileContents
);

// alert("...eval?...really?...");eval('foo');
console.log(transformedFileData.code);