depster

depster

Overview

This Python package converts a package-lock.json file into a CSV file containing detailed information about project dependencies, including their versions, integrity, and metadata. It also fetches the latest versions of the packages from the NPM registry.

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Features

• Parse JSON: Reads and processes package-lock.json into a structured DataFrame using Pandas.
• Extract Key Information: Captures current version, integrity hash, requirements, and nested dependencies.
• Check Dependencies: Identifies if a package has dependencies.
• Fetch Latest Versions: Uses the NPM registry API to get the most recent version of each package.
• Export to CSV: Outputs the cleaned and enriched data to dependencies.csv.

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Prerequisites

Before running the script, ensure you have:

1. Python 3.x installed.
2. Required libraries:

   pip install pandas requests
   

How It Works

1. Load the JSON File

The script reads the package-lock.json file and parses it into a Pandas DataFrame for easy manipulation.

2. Clean and Prepare Data

• Renames columns for better readability:
  • name → Project
  • version → Current Version
  • dependencies → dict
• Adds new columns to store additional information:
  • Latest Version
  • Integrity
  • Requires
  • Dependencies
  • hasDependencies (boolean flag indicating whether a dependency has its own dependencies)

3. Process Dependency Information

Extracts and processes data from the dependencies dictionary:

• Current Version: Retrieves the version of each package.
• Integrity Hash: Captures the package's integrity value if available.
• Nested Dependencies: Lists any nested dependencies along with their versions.
• Required Versions: Lists required versions of dependencies.

4. Query NPM Registry

For each package, the script queries the NPM registry API (https://registry.npmjs.org/:package) to fetch the latest available version and populates the Latest Version column.

5. Export to CSV

The final DataFrame is saved as a CSV file named dependencies.csv.

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Usage

1. Run the script:

   depster path/to/package-lock.json
   

Output

Generated File

The output file, dependencies.csv, will be created in the same directory as the script.

Example Output

The resulting CSV file will include the following columns:

Packages	Project	Current Version	Latest Version	Integrity	Requires	Dependencies	hasDependencies
1	Example1	1.0.0	1.2.0	abc123...	dep1: ^1.0.0, dep2:	dep3: 1.1.0, dep4:	True

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Notes

Performance Considerations

• The script sends a separate request to the NPM registry for each package. This can slow down processing for projects with a large number of dependencies.

Warning Suppression

• Warnings are suppressed in the script for a cleaner execution log.

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Limitations

1. The script assumes a specific structure for the package-lock.json file.
2. An active internet connection is required to fetch the latest package versions.

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License

This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.