02_node_and_jspm

NodeJS library import with JSPM example

Consumes es2015-publish-template and lodash via npm and jspm

##Running this example Make sure you have jspm installed globally first

npm install jspm -g

jspm install
npm install
typings install
node app.js

Mechanisms utilized

• npm
  • npm registry
  • github registry
• jspm
  • npm registry
  • github registry
• typings
  • lodash

Scenario

Take a look at this image

Let it be known, jspm is meant for browsers according to its author, Guy Bedford. It's meant to replace bower and npm for browser dependencies when taking advantage of the systemjs module loader. That doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be used with NodeJS. The author of systemjs (same guy) even has an example on the systemjs github page.

My favorite jspm feature

{
    "main": "dist/cjs_es5/index.js",
    "jspm": {
        "main": "dist/es2015/index.js"
    }
}

That little snippet lives inside the publishing library's package.json. It allows library authors to publish NodeJS-compatible commonjs format over npm (as generally expected) and es6/7 modules when using systemjs without conflict. For proof, install this example and navigate to jspm_packages/github/setheen/. Check out the jspm-generated "es2015-publish-template@master.js" file and note the export paths:

export * from "github:setheen/es2015-publish-template@master/dist/es2015/index.js";
export {default} from "github:setheen/es2015-publish-template@master/dist/es2015/index.js";

jspm accepts any kind of module format you can throw at it (umd/amd/commonjs/system/es2015) in any target version of javascript. It's touted as the ultimate dependency loader and worth your time to investigate.

Unfortunately it has one giant drawback ###NO type definition support for NodeJS :( Your IDE doesn't know to display d.ts definitions when it sees module loading code like this:

System.import('some-package').then((p) => 
{
    // doing something with "some-package" p
});

This example illustrates loading es2015-publish-template and lodash module loading with npm and jspm. Type definitions exist when loaded over npm but not over jspm. Even so, all four permutations will execute just fine.