require-dir-all

Yet another Node.js helper to require all files in directory. Useful when needed to require group of similar files, like routes, controllers, middlewares, models, etc.

Inspired by require-all and require-dir packages. Both of them are good, but first of them lacks relative paths support (need to use __dirname), while second lacks file/dir filtering and recursion control.

!!! WARNING: the package is in ALPHA state, it may be unstable and it may slightly change its API !!!

Installation

npm install require-dir-all --save

Usage

Basic usage

var modules = require('require-dir-all')('directory_to_require');

Afterwards variable modules will contain exported values from all the files in directory accessible as its properties, for example modules.module1 as if they were require'd like:

modules = {
  module1: require('module1')
  module2: require('module2')
}

You may provide additional options using second optional parameter:

var modules = require('require-dir-all')(
  'directory_to_require', // relative or absolute directory 
  { // options
    map: function( ) { /* you may postprocess the name of property the module will be stored and exported object */ }
    recursive:    false,                          // recursively go through subdirectories; default value shown
    includeFiles: /^.*\.(js|json|coffee)$/,       // RegExp to select files; default value shown
    excludeDir:   /^(\.git|\.svn|node_modules)$/  // RegExp to ignore subdirectories; default value shown
  }
);

Options:

• map: function to postprocess each require'd file (see example below); default: null
• recursive - recursively go through subdirectories; default: false
• includeFiles - reg exp to include files, default: /^.*\.(js|json|coffee)$/, which means to require only .js, .json, .coffee files
• excludeDirs - reg exp to exclude subdirectories (when recursive: true ), default: /^(\.(git|svn)|(node_modules))$/, which means to exclude directories .git, .svn, node_modules while going recursively

Simple

If you need to require all the .js, .json, .coffee files in the directory modules, add following line:

var modules = require('require-dir-all')('modules');

or if you like:

var require_dir_all = require('require-dir-all');
var modules = require_dir_all('modules');

Object modules will be populated with properties which names will correspond to module names and values - to exported objects. Traditional equivalent:

modules = {
  module1: require('module1')
  module2: require('module2')
}

By default directories .git, .svn, node_modules are excluded.

Example

Assume you have following structure:

modules/
    module1.js
    module2.js
app.js

File module1.js exports:

module.exports = 'string exported from module 1';

File module2.js exports:

module.exports = 'string exported from module 2';

In app.js:

var modules = require('require-dir-all')('modules');

console.log('modules:', modules);

Result:

modules: { 
  module1: 'string exported from module 1', 
  module2: 'string exported from module 2' 
}

You can find this example in demo/simple/ To run it:

cd demo/simple/
npm install
node app

Recursive

Option recursive: true allows to require recursively the directory and all its subdirectories.

Example

You can find this example in demo/recursive/

Directory structure:

$ ls -R demo/recursive/modules/
demo/recursive/modules/:
dir1  dir.a.b.c  excluded  excluded.2  module1.js  module2.js

demo/recursive/modules/dir1:
dir2  module3.js

demo/recursive/modules/dir1/dir2:
module4.js

demo/recursive/modules/dir.a.b.c:
module5.js

demo/recursive/modules/excluded:
excluded.js

demo/recursive/modules/excluded.2:
excluded.js

File app.js:

'use strict';

var modules = require('require-dir-all')(
  'modules', {
    recursive: true,
    excludeDirs: /^excluded.*$/
  }
);

console.log('modules:', JSON.stringify(modules, null, 2));

Output:

modules: {
  "dir.a.b.c": {
    "module5": "string exported from module 5"
  },
  "dir1": {
    "dir2": {
      "module4": "string exported from module 4"
    },
    "module3": "string exported from module 3"
  },
  "module1": "string exported from module 1",
  "module2": "string exported from module 2"
}

Map

Option map allows to define function to run for each require'd file.

Object properties. These properties may be changed:

• name - module name to be stored in result object
• exports - module's exports value

These properties are read-only:

• path - filepath,
• base - base part of file name,
• ext - file extension

Assume you have following structure:

modules/
  module1
  module2

If each file module1.js, module2.js in modules directory exports a constructor to which the some config parameters are passed like this:

'use strict';

// Object constructor
var Object1 = function(config) {
  this.name = 'Object1';
  this.config = config;
};

// Exporting constructor function
module.exports = Object1;

and the code which require's these files in app_old.js is like following:

// For 
var config1 = { value: 'config1' },
  config2 = 'config2';
  
var module1 = new (require('modules/module1'))(config1),
  module2 = new ()require('module/module2'))(config2);

You may replace this with following code:

// Store config for each module in config object properties
// with property names corresponding to module names
var config = {
  module1: { value: 'config1' },
  module2: { value: 'config2' }
};

// Require all files in modules subdirectory
var modules = require('require-dir-all')(
  'modules', // Directory to require
  {          // Options
    map: function(reqModule) {
      // define function to be post-processed over exported object for each require-d module
      reqModule.exports =
        // create new object with corresponding config passed to constructor
         new reqModule.exports( config[reqModule.name] );
      // Also may change the property name if needed
      // reqModule.name = 'prefix_'+reqModule.name;
    }
  }
);

console.log('modules:', JSON.stringify(modules, null, 2));

Result:

modules: {
  "module1": {
    "name": "Object1",
    "config": {
      "value": "config1"
    }
  },
  "module2": {
    "name": "Object2",
    "config": {
      "value": "config2"
    }
  }
}

You can find this example in demo/map/ To run it:

cd demo/map/
npm install
node app

TODO:

Add modules.each property to make easier calling of same method for each module.

modules.each(function(module) {
  module.init();
});

Links to package pages:

github.com npmjs.com travis-ci.org coveralls.io