@esbuild-kit/esm-loader is an npm package that allows you to use ES modules (ESM) in Node.js environments that do not natively support them. It leverages esbuild to transpile and load ESM code, making it easier to work with modern JavaScript syntax and features.
What are @esbuild-kit/esm-loader's main functionalities?
Transpile ESM to CommonJS
This feature allows you to import and use CommonJS modules in an ESM context. The code sample demonstrates how to use the `createRequire` function to require a CommonJS module in an ESM file.
This feature allows you to directly import and use TypeScript files in your Node.js project. The code sample shows how to import a TypeScript file and call a function from it.
import { exampleFunction } from './example-file.ts';
exampleFunction();
Support for JSX/TSX
This feature enables you to import and use JSX/TSX files in your Node.js project. The code sample demonstrates how to import a TSX file and render a React component.
import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App.tsx';
ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));
ts-node is a TypeScript execution engine and REPL for Node.js. It allows you to run TypeScript code directly without precompiling. Compared to @esbuild-kit/esm-loader, ts-node focuses more on TypeScript execution and less on ESM support.
babel-register is a package that hooks into Node.js require to compile files on the fly using Babel. It supports a wide range of JavaScript syntax and features. While it provides similar functionality to @esbuild-kit/esm-loader, it relies on Babel instead of esbuild for transpilation.
esm is a package that enables ES module support in Node.js. It allows you to use ESM syntax in Node.js versions that do not natively support it. Compared to @esbuild-kit/esm-loader, esm is more focused on providing ESM support without additional transpilation features.
Warning: When set to preserve, the JSX syntax will remain untransformed. To prevent Node.js from throwing a syntax error, chain another Node.js loader that can transform JSX to JS.
Modules transformations are cached in the system cache directory (TMPDIR). Transforms are cached by content hash so duplicate dependencies are not re-transformed.
Set environment variable ESBK_DISABLE_CACHE to a truthy value to disable the cache:
In ESM, import paths must be explicit (must include file name and extension).
For backwards compatibility, this loader adds support for classic Node resolution for extensions: .js, .json, .ts, .tsx, .jsx. Resolving a index file by the directory name works too.
As a result of this change, Node.js changes how it imports a path that matches both a file and directory. In ESM, the directory would be imported, but in CJS, the file would be imported.
Node.js loader for compiling TypeScript modules to ESM
We found that @esbuild-kit/esm-loader demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago.It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
Package last updated on 17 Sep 2023
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