konfilios / autoloader

A Node.JS Module Autoloader

About

Autoloads JS files based on name when the class is needed.

This module removes the needs of using require() all over your files. Simply define the autoloader to your codebase, and use the names relative to the files.

Important: The extension relies on the use of Proxies so you must run nodejs with the --harmony parameter!

Install

Install with npm install autoloader

Usage

The following line loads a namespace:

namespaceObject = require("autoloader")(baseFolderPath, namespaceObject, namespaceName)

The three parameters serve the following purposes:

1. baseFolderPath: It's the absolute path of the folder containing all the namespaced source files. It's used by the autoloader to convert symbolic name to real file paths.

2. namespaceObject: It's the object that will receive the autoloading functionality. Most of the times you'll just pass a literal object which will serve as the autoloadable namespace.

3. namespaceName: This is just an auxiliary parameter which will help make possible errors more understandable. You should pass it the name of the namespace as a string.

Example

Example folder structure:

/example/
         foo/
             baz/
                 Pin.js
         Bar.js
/example.js

File contents:

/example/foo/baz/Pin.js

/**
 * Pin class.
 *
 * @class
 */
example.foo.baz.Pin = function()
{
	console.log('Pin loaded!');
};

/example/foo/Bar.js

/**
 * Bar class.
 *
 * @class
 */
example.foo.Bar = function()
{
	console.log('Bar loaded!');
};

/example.js:

// Load the namespace
example = require("./autoloader")(__dirname + '/example', {}, 'example');

// Use any class
var pin = new example.foo.baz.Pin();
var bar = new example.foo.Bar();

Running the example.js file

node --harmony example

yields the following output:

Pin loaded!
Bar loaded!

Custom Loaders

If you pass a function as the 1st argument, autoloader will execute that instead of loading by directory, allowing you to control what is returned. Callback signature

function (name, object) { }

You will need to assign the value yourself if you wish to not have your loader fire every access.

License

The MIT License

Copyright (c) 2013 Daniel Ennis [e-mail]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.