Component-as-module NPM

component-as-module

It allows to require components from node modules as well as share them with npm community.

Examples

Require stand-alone component (with all dependencies in a components dir):

var component = require('component-as-module')
var min = component('component-min')

Add additional lookup paths or enable dev dependencies:

var boot = component('boot', function(loader) {
  loader.addLookup('node_modules')
  loader.development()
})

Alternative way to require components is to create a special require function:

var req = component.createRequire(function (loader) {
  loader.addLookup('components')
})

var min = req('component-min')

This differs from the above examples in that all loaded components are preserved between calls, so, for example, requiring component-min second time is fast and you recieve the same instance.

Sharing components with npm

To make a component consumable with npm:

1) Create a package.json file

2) Set the name field to either full or partial component name, i.e. to username-foo or to foo.

3) List dependencies. Because npm understands github urls you can safely specify them in a component style:

{
  "name": "foo",
  "dependencies": {
    "bar": "org/bar",
    "baz": "org/baz",
    "qux": "*" // dependency from npm (assuming it is a component) is also ok.
  }
}

4) Create a node specific main file:

node-main.js

module.exports = require('component-as-module')(__dirname)

package.json

{
  "name": "foo",
  "dependencies": {
    "bar": "org/bar",
    "baz": "org/baz",
    "qux": "*", // dependency from npm (assuming it is a component) is also ok.
    "component-as-module": "*" // add additional component-as-module dependency
  },
  "main": "node-main"
}

After that you can safely publish it to npm. It will work like any other npm module. (Just don't forget to include component.json to package.)

Why

I believe there should be only one package convention for the web. No matter what side it is. Component is a good one. This project should help to use it for both node and browser.