Best Require

Best Require is a require() hook plugin for requiring a module in your project elegantly for Node.js.

require(':controllers/posts');
require(':models/Users');
require('~/application/apis/config');

Installation

npm install best-require --save

Introduction

Background

Have you ever coded like this in your application?

// require the 'posts' module
require('./posts');
require('./controllers/posts');
require('../controllers/posts');
require('../../controllers/posts');
require('../../../apis/controllers/posts');

When our project contains many layers of directory, the relative path of each module will become complicated, which not only makes us very confused, but also makes the project difficult to maintain.

When faced with the problem, you might tend to find a unified way to access the posts module, just like me. I used to require modules in this way:

require(ROOT_PATH + '/application/apis/controllers/posts');
// other require()...
require(ROOT_PATH + '/application/apis/controllers/users');
require(ROOT_PATH + '/application/apis/controllers/products');
require(ROOT_PATH + '/application/apis/services/rest');
require(ROOT_PATH + '/application/apis/config');

ummmm... It's more maintainable than before. But, ROOT_PATH is ugly, isn't it?

Solution

Let's try to use Best Require, by adding this at the beginning of the app:

require('best-require')(process.cwd())

Now, we can use ~ to represent process.cwd() in the path:

require('~/application/apis/controllers/posts');
require('~/application/apis/controllers/users');
require('~/application/apis/controllers/products');
require('~/application/apis/services/rest');
require('~/application/apis/config');

However, this directory name is still a bit long, which can be shortened by defining the name mapping:

const ROOT_PATH = process.cwd();
require('best-require')(ROOT_PATH, {
    apis: ROOT_PATH + '/application/apis',
    controllers: ROOT_PATH + '/application/apis/controllers'
});

Then we are able to use :apis for ~/application/apis and :controllers for ~/application/apis/controllers:

require(':controllers/posts');
require(':controllers/users');
require(':controllers/products');
require(':apis/services/rest');
require(':apis/config');

With the release V1.1+, you can also use other keys in the definition of a key-value pair in the name mapping, and our plug-in will automatically handle the keys' dependencies on each other. Therefore, the definition can be simplified as:

require('best-require')(ROOT_PATH, {
    apis: '~/application/apis',
    controllers: ':apis/controllers'
});

Usage

Add this at the beginning of the program:

require('best-require')(
    root_path, // [optional] project root directory, defaults to `process.cwd()`
    name_mapping // [optional] name mapping
);

Then you can use:

require('~/(path)'); // require(root_path + '/(path)');
require(':key/(path)'); // require(name_mapping[key] + '/(path)');