global-define

Global Define

AMD loader for Node, it creates global define function to mimic requirejs define in node. Using amdefine under the hood. And allows to require modules relative to basePath (escaping ../../../../.. mess). Combined with support for paths aliases, provides unified environment for modules shared between server and browser (isomorphic javascript).

Installiation

npm install global-define --save

Examples

Basic

Include following line within entry point of your application, and it will automatically add global define function to all included modules/files.

index.js:

require('global-define')({basePath: __dirname});

module.js:

// works in node and in a browser
define([
  'app/models/property',
  'app/collections/property_search'
], function(Property, PropertySearch)
{
  // ...
});

Path aliases

Usually its suggested for module id to reflect path to the file, but its not always the case, this is where paths aliases come to help.

In the following example some_module has several components located within lib folder.

index.js:

require('global-define')(
{
  basePath: __dirname,
  paths:
  {
    'some_module/': 'some_module/lib/'
  }
});

node_modules/some_module/lib/component.js:

define('some_module/component', [
  'some_module/another_component'
], function(Dependency)
{
  // ...
});

Black List

If certain modules don't play nice with global define on the server, its possible to exclude them from the world of happiness, by adding them to the black list. It supports glob patterns via minimatch module.

Following example will add global define only to the files of the project, without affecting any dependencies.

index.js:

require('global-define')(
{
  basePath:  __dirname,
  blackList: ['node_modules/**']
});

White List

If you want to play safe, you can white list only certain files in the project.

Following example will add global define only to the files in app/shared folder.

index.js:

require('global-define')(
{
  basePath:  __dirname,
  whiteList: ['app/shared/**']
});

Expose AMDefine

By default it creates only global define function, so UMD modules still opt-in for server-side way of doing things (some of them are using UMD not only for loading resources, but to choose between browser/server branches of the code).

If you don't have such modules (or blacklisted them) and you need better requirejs/amdefine support, set exposeAmdefine to true, to expose .amd and .require properties of the amdefine module on per file basis.

index.js:

require('global-define')(
{
  basePath:  __dirname,
  blackList: ['node_modules/sinon/'],
  exposeAmdefine: true
});

Same file invocation

If you want to use global-define within tne entry point of your application (your index file). It returns reference to the define function tailored for the invoking module:

index.js:

var define = require('global-define')({basePath: __dirname});

define(['app/lib/helper'], function(Helper)
{
  // ...
});

deleteModuleCache (default false)

This allows you to pass in a boolean to delete the modules that you are requiring from nodes require.cache array. This is useful in development for making changes without having to restart your node server. Please use with caution, this approach is prone to unforeseen side effects.

index.js

require('global-define')(
{
  basePath:  __dirname,
  deleteModuleCache: true
});