Packaging ES6-expressed Node files into a single Node module

Question

I have a set of interdependent Node.js modules that I have been building as ES6 modules, and I would ideally like to be able to specify a single module as an entry point and have these built (using grunt) into a single file which can be required by a Node application.

grunt-babel does not seem to be able to handle this packaging.

I know that browserify can do this for the browser, and I know browserify can include Node modules, but I haven't been able to figure out how to have browserify transform the single module entry point into a require-able Node module.

So, if my source file (and entry point), src/hello.js were:

import world from './world.js';
export default function () {console.log('Hello' + world + '!');};

and src/world.js were:

export default 'world';

I'd like it to be able to use it from a normal Node application like:

var hw = require('./dest/hello-world.js');
hw();

What would my grunt file need to look like?

Brett Zamir · Answer 1 · 2016-06-01T21:26:49.543

Turns out I had two problems:

In my .babelrc file I needed:

{
  "presets": ["es2015"],
  "plugins": ["add-module-exports"]
}

...whereas in my Grunt file I needed:

    browserify: {
        myNode: {
            options: {
                transform: [['babelify', {sourceMaps: true}]],
                browserifyOptions: {
                    standalone: 'dummyPlaceholder'
                }
                // Depending on your needs, you may also
                //  need `node: true` here or the options
                // in the 2nd argument of the `browserify` call
                // (as I required to allow GLOBAL.window = GLOBAL
                //  injection)
                // at https://github.com/substack/node-browserify/issues/1277#issuecomment-115198436
            },
            files: {
                'dist/<%= pkg.name%>-node.js': 'src/node.js'
            }
        }
    },

The plugin "add-module-exports" was necessary to avoid a change in Babel which necessitates calls like var mod = require('mod').default; instead of just var mod = require('mod');.

The standalone property is not actually used here to create a global since it is being used in a module environment (Node/CommonJS), but the property's presence is required to trigger an export.

Packaging ES6-expressed Node files into a single Node module

1 Answers1