virtualenv

node-virtualenv

node-virtualenv allows you to include Python dependencies in your node projects, without cluttering up your system environment.

For example, let's add Skype4Py as a dependency to our project. In your package.json, we are going to add 3 things:

1. Dependency on virtualenv (this library)
2. Section for "virtualenv", including the version of virtualenv we want.
3. Postinstall to prepare the virtualenv every time your module is npm installed.

{
  "dependencies": {
    "virtualenv": "*"
  },
  "virtualenv": {
    "version": "1.10.1",
    "dependencies": [
      "Skype4Py==1.0.35"
    ]
  },
  "scripts": {
    "postinstall": "./node_modules/.bin/virtualenv-postinstall"
  }
}

When you run npm install, the Skype4Py dependency will be isolated in a virtualenv located under ./node_modules/.virtualenv.

Next, spawn your isolated Python virtualenv from node:

var virtualenv = require("virtualenv");
var packagePath = require.resolve("./package.json")
var env = virtualenv(packagePath);

// This is a child_process running using your virtualenv. You can
// communicate with it over stdin/stdout, etc.
var child = env.spawnPython(["./my_python_helper.py"]);

Contributing

Just make a pull request :)