create-react-index

create-react-index program creates (and maintains) ES6 ./index.js file in target directories that imports and exports sibling files and directories as React components.

Example

> tree ./
./
├── bar.js
└── foo.js
 
0 directories, 2 files
 
> create-react-index ./
[13:17:34] Target directories [ './' ]
[13:17:34] Update index: false
[13:17:34] ./index.js [created index]
[13:17:34] Done
 
> tree
.
├── bar.js
├── foo.js
└── index.js
 
0 directories, 3 files

This created index.js with:

// @create-react-index
 
export { default as Bar } from './bar.js';
export { default as Foo } from './foo.js';
 

Lets create a new file and re-run create-react-index:

> touch baz.js
> tree ./
./
├── bar.js
├── baz.js
├── foo.js
└── index.js
 
0 directories, 4 files
 
> create-react-index ./
[13:21:55] Target directories [ './' ]
[13:21:55] Update index: false
[13:21:55] ./index.js [updated index]
[13:21:55] Done

This have updated index.js file:

// @create-react-index
 
export { default as Bar } from './bar.js';
export { default as Baz } from './baz.js';
export { default as Foo } from './foo.js';
 

Usage

Using CLI Program

npx create-react-index --help
 
Options:
  --recursive, -r          Create/update index files recursively. Halts on any
                           unsafe "index.js" files.   [boolean] [default: false]
  --ignoreUnsafe, -i       Ignores unsafe "index.js" files instead of halting.
                                                      [boolean] [default: false]
  --ignoreDirectories, -d  Ignores importing directories into the index file,
                           even if they have a safe "index.js".
                                                      [boolean] [default: false]
  --update, -u             Updates only previously created index files
                           (recursively).             [boolean] [default: false]
  --banner                 Add a custom banner at the top of the index file
                                                                        [string]
  --extensions, -x         Allows some extensions to be parsed as valid source.
                           First extension will always be preferred to homonyms
                           with another allowed extension.
                                                       [array] [default: ["js"]]
 
Examples:
  npx create-react-index ./src ./src/utilities      Creates or updates an existing
                                          create-react-index index file in the target
                                          (./src, ./src/utilities) directories.
  npx create-react-index --update ./src ./tests     Finds all create-react-index index files in
                                          the target directories and descending
                                          directories. Updates found index
                                          files.
  npx create-react-index ./src --extensions js jsx  Creates or updates an existing
                                          create-react-index index file in the target
                                          (./src) directory for both .js and
                                          .jsx extensions.

Using create-react-index Programmatically

Note that you will need to install this package using

npm i create-react-index

import {
    writeIndex
} from 'create-react-index';
 
/**
 * @type {Function} 
 * @param {Array<string>} directoryPaths 
 * @throws {Error} Directory "..." does not exist.
 * @throws {Error} "..." is not a directory.
 * @throws {Error} "..." unsafe index.
 * @returns {boolean} 
 */
writeIndex;

Note that the writeIndex function is synchronous.

import {
    findIndexFiles
} from 'create-react-index';
 
/**
 * @type {Function} 
 * @param {string} directoryPath 
 * @returns {Array<string>} List of directory paths that have create-react-index index file.
 */
findIndexFiles;

Gulp

Since Gulp can ran arbitrary JavaScript code, there is no need for a separate plugin. See Using create-react-index Programmatically.

import {
    writeIndex
} from 'create-react-index';
 
gulp.task('create-react-index', () => {
    writeIndex(['./target_directory']);
});

Note that the writeIndex function is synchronous.

Implementation

create-react-index program will look into the target directory.

If there is no ./index.js, it will create a new file, e.g.

// @create-react-index

Created index file must start with // @create-react-index\n\n. This is used to make sure that create-react-index does not accidentally overwrite your local files.

If there are sibling files, index file will import them and export, e.g.

children-directories-and-files git:(master) ✗ ls -lah
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   5 gajus  staff   170B  6 Jan 15:39 .
drwxr-xr-x  10 gajus  staff   340B  6 Jan 15:53 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 gajus  staff    68B  6 Jan 15:29 bar
drwxr-xr-x   2 gajus  staff    68B  6 Jan 15:29 foo
-rw-r--r--   1 gajus  staff     0B  6 Jan 15:29 foo.js

Given the above directory contents, ./index.js will be:

// @create-react-index
 
import { default as bar } from './bar';
import { default as foo } from './foo.js';
 
export {
    bar,
    foo
};

When file has the same name as a sibling directory, file import takes precedence.

Directories that do not have ./index.js in themselves will be excluded.

When run again, create-react-index will update existing ./index.js if it starts with // @create-react-index\n\n.

If create-react-index is executed against a directory that contains ./index.js, which does not start with // @create-react-index\n\n, an error will be thrown.

Ignore files on --update

create-react-index can ignore files in a directory if ./index.js contains special object with defined ignore property which takes an array of regular expressions defined as strings, e.g.

> cat index.js
// @create-react-index {"ignore": ["/baz.js$/"]}

> tree ./
./
├── bar.js
├── baz.js
├── foo.js
└── index.js
 
0 directories, 4 files

Given the above directory contents, after running create-react-index with --update flag, ./index.js will be:

// @create-react-index {"ignore": ["/baz.js$/"]}
 
import { default as bar } from './bar.js';
import { default as foo } from './foo.js';
 
export {
    bar,
    foo
};