jesse23 / kit-example

example for how to ship source code as optional kit in a nodejs project

kit-example

example for how to ship source code as optional kit in a nodejs project

Requirement

Development

• Dependency should be managed by each app/lib/plugin(kit)
• package-lock update shouldn't be a critical path for development which blocks productivity

Shipment

• Ship as source code
• Dependencies are required for offline installation
• Plugins/kits are optional to deploy

Deployment

• Install environment deployment should be only for selected plugins/kits
• Build should work as expected

Proposal

Development

• In monorepo, dependencies could be defined in the package.json(s) of each app/lib/plugin(kit)
• package-lock update could be done by ci and either update the branch or upload to different storage with hash.

Shipment

• Each plugin(kit) will be zipped/packed separately.
• Dependencies can be identified by install dependencies selectively:

# install base dependencies
npm ci -w apps/* libs/*

copy_base_node_modules_and_apps_and_libs_and_zip_it

# install plugin dependencies only then we know which deps are only required for this plugin
npm ci -w plugins/buyer

move_delta_node_modules_and_copy_plugin_buyer_and_zip_it

# install plugin dependencies only then we know which deps are only required for this plugin
npm ci -w plugins/seller

move_delta_node_modules_and_copy_plugin_seller_and_zip_it

• If on plugin depends on the other plugin by definition, same approach can be applied to identify the dependencies for different level.
• It is a stable solution since everything happens under node_modules folder and package-lock.json.
• If we have symlink for some external base lib, and we want to test it with shipment, it can be run has hard copy without npm pack.

Installation

• Based on the plugin selection, the corresponding zip(s) will be unzipped to a trimmed monorepo folder.
• Then all the script can be run as same as the development environment.

Migration Consideration

If an existing project is not in monorepo practice and putting all deps in root package.json directly, we could migrate it to approach above by:

• Convert the plugin(kit) that has deps to use package.json and move corresponding deps to it.
• Convert the root package.json to monorepo by adding that workspaces field. Nothing should be broken.
• Refactor shipment script to have that node_modules copy and zip logic.

Notes

• In monorepo, if a sub package has bundledDependencies, the dependency will be skip to install if the package-lock.json is generated by npm i --install-strategy=nested