wbzyl / fortunes-module

Creating a NodeJs module HOWTO

Fortunes module

NodeJS module HOWTO.

Create the basic structure

Create a directory fortunes-module and put in it the following files:

.
|-- README.md
|-- package.json
|-- bin
|   `-- nfortune
|-- lib
|   `-- main.js
`-- test
    `-- main.js

GitHub

Setup a local git repository:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "create the basic structure"

Install the github gem:

gem install github

Create the remote repo at GitHub:

github create-from-local

Continous integration with Travis

• login into Travis with Github account
• goto the Travis profile page
• add a .travis.yml file:

language: node_js
node_js:
  - 0.6

• add, commit and push changes to GitHub

Travis resources

• getting started
• status images

Make the module

Use npm init to create the following package.json file:

{
  "author": "Włodek Bzyl <[e-mail]>",
  "contributors": [
    { "name": "Włodek Bzyl", "email": "[e-mail]" }
  ],
  "name": "fortunes-module",
  "description": "print a random quote",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "keywords": ["fortune", "template", "module"],
  "repository": {
    "type": "git",
    "url": "git://github.com/wbzyl/fortunes-module.git"
  },
  "main": "lib/main.js",
  "bin": {
    "nfortune": "./bin/nfortune"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "test": "mocha test/*.js"
  },
  "dependencies": {},
  "devDependencies": {
    "mocha": "*",
    "should": "*"
  },
  "optionalDependencies": {},
  "engines": {
    "node": "*"
  }
}

Install the devDependencies:

npm install

and ignore them:

echo node_modules/ > .gitignore
git add package.json .gitignore
git commit -m 'ignore installed dependencies'

Make the first test

• should.js
• mocha

var should = require('should')
var fortunes = require('../lib/main')

describe('fortunes module', function() {
  describe('with no arguments', function() {
    it('returns a random quote', function() {
      var result = fortunes()
      result.should.not.be.empty
    })
  })
})

Publish the module

Try the module locally:

npm install -g .
nfortunes
npm rm -g fortunes-module

Register in npmjs.org:

npm adduser

Change the version to 1.0.0 in package.json commit & push changes to GitHub:

git add .
git commit -m "ready for production"
git tag v1.0.0
git push --tags

And finally publish it:

npm publish .