CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptnode.jsrequirenode-modules
Erik
Erik

Reputation: 14788

How to require deep nested NodeJS modules?

I have the following application structure:

application
|- config
|----- config.js
|- routes
|------ api
|-----------router.js 
|- Application.js
|- package.json

In /routes/api/router.js module I need to require /config/config.js file and do the following:

require('../../config/config.js');

I found the code above ugly and want to make it more pretty. Also if I move /routes/api/router.js to another folder I have to refactor all requires. What is the best practices to require that modules and is it possible to require config.js from application folder root, something like the following:

require('/config/config.js');

Thanks.

Upvotes: 9

Views: 5827

Answers (3)

Samuli Asmala
Samuli Asmala

Reputation: 2381

The easiest solution is to use path.resolve. If you only give relative paths to path.resolve then it assumes they are relative to the current working directory, i.e. the project root. So all you need is:

const path = require('path');
path.resolve('config/config.js');

Upvotes: 1

go-oleg
go-oleg

Reputation: 19480

There are a few ways to get around this problem. One is to put all your shared code (like config.js) in a directory under node_modules (using lib here in case you want to have directories other than config in there):

application
|- node_modules
|----- lib
|---------- config
|-------------- config.js
|- routes
|------ api
|-----------router.js 
|- Application.js
|- package.json

So then you could require config.js using require( 'lib/config/config.js' ).

Alternatively, you could create a lib symlink in node_modules and link it to lib in your application directory structure:

application
|- node_modules
|----- lib -> ../../lib
|- lib
|------ config
|---------- config.js
|- routes
|------ api
|-----------router.js 
|- Application.js
|- package.json

One other alternative, which unfortunately is discouraged by the node docs, is to use NODE_PATH which lets you specify directories that node's require() algorithm should look into. Following the same pattern as above with lib, you would do:

application
|- lib
|------ config
|---------- config.js
|- routes
|------ api
|-----------router.js 
|- Application.js
|- package.json

and set NODE_PATH equal to $path_to_application/lib.

UPDATE

Found this great discussion on the topic which includes the options above as well as a few other ones.

Upvotes: 3

ma08
ma08

Reputation: 3744

require('/config/config.js');

will not work as you are using the root of the system(os) not the root of the application.

var path=require('path');
var root=path.dirname(process.mainModule.filename);

or

var root=process.cwd();

will give you the root of the application. To navigate to config.js

path.resolve(root,'config/config.js)

Upvotes: 0

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