A New Module System for Node

Node.js does not need a new module system. Its existing implementation of a CommonJS module system works great. Even Facebook apparently gave up developing their internal module system, Haste. So the module system I am building is not of any production value but is just a fun weekend project.

How it will work

I name this new module system node-get because get is the global used to load new modules with it. There's an executable named node-get that can be installed using npm -g node-get-modules. You can run it just like the node executable. 

$ node-get hello.js

Where hello.js is a JavaScript file that uses node-get module system. Here's an example. 

// hello.js
const capitalize = get('capitalize.js');
const hello = capitalize('hello world!');
console.log(hello) // Prints Hello World!

But in this post, I'll use node directly to run it because it requires no set up and works anywhere. 

$ node node-get.js hello.js

I am using Node.js version 6 to build node-get so the code here uses ES6 syntax. Everything should work in node version 4 as well.

vm module

First, I want to introduce you the vm module from Node.js. vm's responsibility is executing JavaScript. Every single JavaScript file you write in your Node.js app must contact this module at some point to have it executed.

vm provides two methods to facilitate this.

Context in these methods refer to the global state. Both methods execute the JavaScript code stored in string variable someJSCode. They differ only by the global variables they allow someJSCode to use.

runInNewContext makes a brand new set of variables and functions using entries in theNewContext object and makes them available to someJSCode as globals.

runInThisContext makes all the globals available to the script that runs it, to be available to someJSCode as well.

I will get to these methods the moment I start building the new module system.

The job of a module system

It's the job a module system to read contents of JavaScript files and run their content using the vm module. It should help these files communicate by passing results of the callee to the caller.

The Node.js module system, with require and exports, does just that and so will my new module system.

I start coding

I'll start to code; feel free to follow along if you like.

First I'll create two files.

node-get.js will contain the actual code of node-get, my new module system. hello.js will contain the JavaScript code that I will run using node-get. It will demonstrate the features of node-get

I'll put some code in hello.js.

// hello.js
console.log('hello world!');

I'll start node-get.js with following code. It's using runInNewContext from the vm module. 

const vm = require('vm');
const fs = require('fs');

// Read the module
const moduleJS = fs.readFileSync('./hello.js')

// Create an empty context
context = {};

// Execute JavaScript from hello.js
vm.runInNewContext(moduleJs, context)

I am extracting the content of hello.js into a variable named moduleJS and executing them using the introduced vm.runInNewContext. Since context is just an empty object, JavaScript in moduleJS does not have access to any global variables.

I'll run the program to see how it go.

$ node node-get.js hello.js

Aaaand error!

evalmachine.<anonymous>:3
console.log('hello world!');
^
ReferenceError: console is not defined

Enlightnment: conosole is not JavaScript

When I'm writing JavaScript, irrespective of whether it's for the browser or Node.js, I use console.log statements a lot. And they work every time. So naturally I thought it will work inside vm. I guess subconsciously I thought that console is a part of JavaScript. But as it turns out it's just a global provided by the environment.

Above I used runInNewContext. So in this new context there is no console defined. One way to fix it is to add console to the context. 

context = {console}; // Now contex has a console
vm.runInNewContext(moduleJs, context);

This does work for now, But console is not the only global that we may use in our modules. There is a whole list of them documented in Node.js documentation. process, Buffer, setTimeout, to name a few.

So if I want to pass in all the globals I'll have to do something like, 

vm.runInNewContext(moduleJs, {...globals})

But remembering that I have another method from vm at my disposal, I will use it instead. 

const vm = require('vm');
const fs = require('fs');

const moduleJs = fs.readFileSync('./hello.js');
vm.runInThisContext(moduleJs);

hello.js now have access to any global available to node-get.js. It works now! 

$ node node-get.js hello.js
hello world!

The get

I will now add the get global so hello.js can load JavaScript from other files as well.

I will define this function inside node-get.js but I intend to use it inside hello.js and inside any other module that hello.js might load(get).

Remember that any global available to node-get.js is available to JavaScript code that goes through runInThisContext. So we need to define get as a global inside node-get.js. 

global.get = filename => {
  const loadedJS = fs.readFileSync(filename)
  vm.runInThisContext(loadedJS);
}

With that, my node-get.js looks like this.

// node-get.js
const vm = require('vm');
const fs = require('fs');

global.get = filename => {
  const loadedJS = fs.readFileSync(filename)
  vm.runInThisContext(loadedJS);
}

global.get(process.argv[2])

Note that I am using process.argv[2] to get the entry point to the app instead of hardcoded hello.js.

This entry point module have access to get as a global and any module that's loaded using get('any JS file') will to. So recursively any module in the example project can use get.

To demonstrate these capabilities of node-get, from hello.js I will get a file named cat.js and from within this cat.js I will get another file named mouse.js. All files contain some dumb console.log statement. 

// hello.js
console.log('hello world!');
get('./cat.js')

// cat.js
console.log('hello, I am a cat.')
get('./mouse.js')

// mouse.js
console.log('hello, I am a mouse.')

Run node node-get.js hello.js; Aaaand...

$ node node-get.js hello.js
hello world!
hello, I am a cat.
hello, I am a mouse.

Success!

Module scope

So, for now, everything seems to work fine. Let's add more JavaScript to our modules. I'll start with variables. I will define a variable named name in each of cat.js and mouse.js modules. 

// cat.js
const name = 'Tom'
console.log(`hello, I am a cat named ${name}`);

// mouse.js
const name = 'Jerry'
console.log(`hello, I am a mouse named ${name}`);

This time, I will get both modules in hello.js 

// hello.js
console.log('hello world!');
get('./cat.js')
get('./mouse.js')

Aaaand run it.

$ node node-get.js hello.js
hello world!
hello, I am a cat named Tom
evalmachine.<anonymous>:1
const name = 'Jerry'
^

TypeError: Identifier 'name' has already been declared.

Variables defined in a Node.js(CommonJS) module are local to that module. Unless we export them using exports we can't access them outside the module. But code in cat.js and mouse.js apparently run in the same scope.

Just because they live in two separate files does not make them run in two separate scopes. This problem can be traced to this line from node-get.js. 

vm.runInThisContext(loadedJS);

Every single module that will be loaded using our module system will go through this line. So every single module will be run in the context of node-get.js; And in the scope of the get function.

The problem of scopes in JavaScript is well discussed over many years. Before ES6 functions are the only constructs in JavaScript that had a scope of their own. (ES6 introduced classes, let and const) So to give these modules their own scope I'll have to stick them inside one.

I'll write a function called wrap which returns the code of a JavaScript function containing JavaScript code from the module. 

const wrap = moduleJS => (
  `(() => {${moduleJS}})()` // wrapping moduleJS in a self calling arrow function
)

global.get = filename => {
  const loadedJS = fs.readFileSync(filename);
  const wrappedJS = wrap(loadedJS)
  vm.runInThisContext(wrappedJS);
}

Now contents of the loaded module are put inside a function. This function calls itself.

This fixes node-get's scope problem so I get the desired output. 

$ node node-get.js hello.js
hello world!
hello, I am a cat named Tom
hello, I am a mouse named Jerry

get relative paths

So now my module system is working pretty well. Currently, my Hello-Tom&Jerry project's and node-gets files are all in the same directory. I'll tidy up things a bit by moving the example project's files into a directory aptly named 'example'. 

├── example
│   ├── cat.js
│   ├── mouse.js
│   └── hello.js
└── node-get.js

I shouldn't need to change anything inside hello.js since I used relative paths to get other modules in it. And relative paths would be the same in this directory structure as well.

Let's see how that works out.

$ node node-get.js example/hello.js

hello world!
fs.js:640
  return binding.open(pathModule._makeLong(path), stringToFlags(flags), mode);
                 ^

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open './cat.js'

I was used to require files with paths relative to the module I am calling require in, I thought get will work the same way. But turns out I need to do a bit of work to get it to work that way.

Let's first understand why it did not work this way.

The fs module is what we use to read the contents in loaded modules from node-get.js

fs module actually resolves relative paths relative to the current working directory of the process. Say I run node-get from cwd/node-get. So when get('./cat.js') is called inside hello.js(or anywhere else) where it looks for it is cwd/cat.js. It's not going to find a cat.js there because I just moved it into a directory named example so it's in cwd/example/cat.js

I'd like get to resolve relative paths the same way require does. So I want the get global method in each of my modules to resolve relative modules relative to its own self. So get in each module should work in a way that is specific to that module. The best way I could achieve this is providing each module with its own specific instance of get.

So first I'll change wrappedFunction to take a get parameter. 

const wrap = moduleJS => (
  `(get => {${moduleJS}})`
)

Note that the wrappedFunction is not self-calling anymore. (I have taken out the () at the end.) Instead, it's returned to the place where runInThisContext is called so it can be called from there.

Now I'll change the get function.

I have already decided that I need a specific get function for each new module. So instead of one single global get function, I will create a get factory function named createGet so I can create any number of gets from it. Each created get is different from another because each get function has a caller specific to that particular get.

Here is the createGet function with each line following a comment describing it. 

const createGet = caller => {
  return filename => {
    // Get the directory the caller is in
    const callersDirectory = path.dirname(caller);

    // resolve relative path relative to the caller's directory
    const filepath = path.resolve(callersDirectory, filename);

    // Read the content in loaded file
    const loadedJS = fs.readFileSync(filepath);

    // wrap it inside the wrapper function. It's not immediately called now
    const wrappedJS = wrap(loadedJS)

    // Run the content through vm. This returns the wrapped function so we can call it later
    const newModule = vm.runInThisContext(wrappedJS);

    // Create a new get to be used in this new module, using createGet itself. Bit of a recursion :)
    const newGet = createGet(filename);

    // Call the newModule (wrappedFunction) with the created `get`
    newModule(newGet);
  }
}

When a get is passed a relative file path, it is resolved relative to the get function's callers location.

Here's the latest node-get.js.

// node-get.js
cconst vm = require('vm');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

const wrap = moduleJS => (
  `(get => {${moduleJS}})`
)

const createGet = caller => {
  return filename => {
    const callersDirectory = path.dirname(caller);
    const filepath = path.resolve(callersDirectory, filename); // Paths resolved relative to caller's directory
    const loadedJS = fs.readFileSync(filepath);
    const wrappedJS = wrap(loadedJS)
    const newModule = vm.runInThisContext(wrappedJS);

    const newGet = createGet(filename);

    newModule(newGet);
  }
}

// The entry point to the app does not have a caller. So we create an artificial one.
const rootCaller = path.join(process.cwd(), '__main__');
const rootGet = createGet(rootCaller);
rootGet(process.argv[2])

Now relative paths work the way we are familiar with and I get the expected output. 

$ node node-get.js example/hello.js
hello world!
hello, I am a cat named Tom
hello, I am a mouse named Jerry

give

Currently when get is used to load another JavaScript file the contents of that file is executed. But with Node.js modules we can return the results of this execution to the caller to be used later. (Using exports) 

const fs = require('fs');
fs.readFileSync('somefile') // Like this.

Now I'll implement the same functionality in node-get.

I'll provide each module with a give function to complement the get it already has. give can be used in the following way. 

// capitalize.js
const capitalize = () => { /*function logic*/ }
give(capitalize)

First, I'll change the wrapperFunction to accept another parameter, give. 

const wrap = moduleJS => (
  `((get, give) => {${moduleJS}})`
)

I'll implement give in the createGet function itself. 

const createGet = caller => {
  return filename => {
    const callersDirectory = path.dirname(caller);
    const filepath = path.resolve(callersDirectory, filename); // Paths resolved relative to caller's directory
    const loadedJS = fs.readFileSync(filepath);
    const wrappedJS = wrap(loadedJS)
    const newModule = vm.runInThisContext(wrappedJS);

    const newGet = createGet(filepath);

    let givenValue;
    const newGive = value => { givenValue = value }

    newModule(newGet, newGive); // Pass new give along side new get.

    return givenValue;
  }
}

It's very simple to implement give. It takes the value passed to it and assigns it to givenValue which is returned from the outer get function. This would mean that only the last give call from a module will take effect.

This completes my new module system and I feel quite clever!

Here are the files from my example project updated to demonstrate the latest features of node-get. 

// utils/capitalize.js
// Lifted from stackoverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/a/7592235/1150725
const capitalize = text => {
    return text.replace(/(?:^|\s)\S/g, function(a) { return a.toUpperCase(); });
}
give(capitalize)

// cat.js
const capitalize = get('./utils/capitalize.js')
const name = 'Tom'
give(capitalize(`hello, I am a cat named ${name}`));

// mouse.js
const capitalize = get('./utils/capitalize.js')
const name = 'Jerry'
give(capitalize(`hello, I am a mouse named ${name}`));

// hello.js
console.log('hello world!');

const catText = get('./cat.js');
console.log(catText);

const mouseText = get('./mouse.js');
console.log(mouseText);

Here is the completed node-get.js.

// node-get.js
const vm = require('vm');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

const wrap = moduleJS => (
  `((get, give) => {${moduleJS}})`
)

const createGet = parent => {
  return filename => {
    const parentsDirectory = path.dirname(parent);
    const filepath = path.resolve(parentsDirectory, filename); // Paths resolved relative to parent's directory
    const loadedJS = fs.readFileSync(filepath);
    const wrappedJS = wrap(loadedJS)
    const newModule = vm.runInThisContext(wrappedJS);

    const newGet = createGet(filepath);

    let givenValue;
    const newGive = value => { givenValue = value }

    newModule(newGet, newGive);

    return givenValue;
  }
}

// The entry point to the app does not have a parent. So we create an artificial one.
const rootParent = path.join(process.cwd(), '__main__');
const rootGet = createGet(rootParent);
rootGet(process.argv[2])

I'll run node-get one last time.

$ node node-get.js example/hello.js
hello world!
Hello, I Am A Cat Named Tom
Hello, I Am A Mouse Named Jerry

Comparison with Node.js module system

Node.js module system works very similar to the module system I just built. 

$ node
> const m = require('module')
> m.wrap("somejs")
'(function (exports, require, module, __filename, __dirname) { somejs\n});'

See that its signature is quite similar to node-get's wrapper function's.

These similarities are there because node-get is built using the understanding I got of Node.js module system by going through its source.

And of course, Node.js module system has many additional features as well.

These features are not that complex. I bet you could think of ways to implement them into node-get if needed.

This excercise helped me to get some subtle understanding of Node.js. I hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Despite what is commonly said, I really think that JavaScript is alright. I love Node.js for allowing me to do a great many things with it.

I plan to hack deeper into Node.js, and write about my experiments with it. Stay tuned!