require-from

Require non-public definitions from node modules.

Motivation

It is convenient to be able to expose internal module definitions that are not part of the public API without having to create a separate module. A common use case is testing.

Installation

Usually this module is only needed for development.

npm install require-from --save-dev

Notice to 0.9.x users

Version 0.10.0 requires passing an additional parameter (module, see usage below) to correctly handle relative imports. Users of earlier versions should upgrade.

Usage

1. Expose the desired definitions through module using a key other than exports. e.g.: module.testExports.

2. From another module require the definition through requireFrom('exports-key', module, 'path-to-module'). Where

   'exports-key' is a string matching the name of the object with the definitions (testExports above).

   module is the Node provided object representing the current module.

   'path-to-module' is a path following the Node.js require API.

Sample

exporter.js:

module.testExports = 'testExports';
module.exports = 'regular exports';

importer.js:

var requireFrom = require('require-from');
 
console.log('requireFrom("testExports", module, "./exporter") ->',
            requireFrom('testExports', module, './exporter'));
 
console.log('requireFrom("exports", module, "./exporter") ->',
            requireFrom('exports', module, './exporter'));

output:

requireFrom("testExports", module, "./exporter") -> testExports
requireFrom("exports", module, "./exporter") -> regular exports

Tip

Define a naming convention and use bind:

var requireFromTest = require('require-from').bind(undefined, 'testExports', module);
var m1 = requireFromTest('./m1');
var m2 = requireFromTest('./m2');

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require-from Copyright 2014 © DEADB17 [e-mail]
Distributed under the MIT license.