import-from-esm
v1.3.4
Published
Import a module like with require() but from a given path (for ESM)
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import-from-esm
Overview
Import a module like with
require()
but from a given path (for ESM)
This library intends to be an almost drop-in replacement of import-from
(from which it is forked), exposing the same API and behavior but also supporting ES modules (ESM). Just add await
before importFrom
/importFrom.silent
Motivation
The main benefit of using import-from
is that it abstracts the need to resolve the path and create a require
statement. Its code is really straightforward:
(fromDirectory, moduleId) => createRequire(path.resolve(fromDirectory, "noop.js"))(moduleId);
In the case of import-from-esm
, there are a few additional benefits because of the way ESM works:
- Importing a package installed along a library (in the parent application) from that library is no longer possible (which was the issue that made me work on this library). You need to use
import.meta.resolve
, which is behind an experimental flag (although there's a ponyfill available at wooorm/import-meta-resolve, whichimport-from-esm
uses under-the-hood). - If the file you're trying to import (whether relative, package, export map, etc ...) is a JSON file, you need to detect that and use import assertions or
require
(while the former is still in experimental). - File extensions are now mandatory for relative paths.
import-from-esm
re-introducesrequire
's file extension discovery.
As you can see, there is quite a bit of complexity that is abstracted behind import-from-esm
. The first bullet point issue affected both @semantic-release/commit-analyzer
and @semantic-release/release-notes-generator
. After spending hours on research to solve the issue, I realized that the work I was doing would benefit others as well, so I decided to create a package out of it.
As a proponent of ESM, I have put a lot of thought into poly-filling require
features for import
, but finally came to the conclusion that developing a package to facilitate the ecosystem transition to ESM by reducing friction was a good thing.
Install
$ npm install import-from-esm
Usage
import importFrom from "import-from-esm";
// there is a file at `./foo/bar.{js,mjs,cjs,json}`
await importFrom("foo", "./bar");
API
importFrom(fromDirectory, moduleId)
Like require()
, throws when the module can't be found.
importFrom.silent(fromDirectory, moduleId)
Returns undefined
instead of throwing when the module can't be found.
fromDirectory
Type: string
Directory to import from.
moduleId
Type: string
What you would use in require()
.
Tip
Create a partial using a bound function if you want to import from the same fromDir
multiple times:
const importFromFoo = importFrom.bind(null, "foo");
importFromFoo("./bar");
importFromFoo("./baz");