require-directory

Recursively iterates over specified directory, require()'ing each file, and returning a nested hash structure containing those modules.

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How To Use

Installation (via npm)

1$ npm install require-directory

Usage

A common pattern in node.js is to include an index file which creates a hash of the files in its current directory. Given a directory structure like so:

• app.js
• routes/
  • index.js
  • home.js
  • auth/
    • login.js
    • logout.js
    • register.js

routes/index.js uses require-directory to build the hash (rather than doing so manually) like so:

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory');
2module.exports = requireDirectory(module);

app.js references routes/index.js like any other module, but it now has a hash/tree of the exports from the ./routes/ directory:

1var routes = require('./routes');
2
3// snip
4
5app.get('/', routes.home);
6app.get('/register', routes.auth.register);
7app.get('/login', routes.auth.login);
8app.get('/logout', routes.auth.logout);

The routes variable above is the equivalent of this:

1var routes = {
2  home: require('routes/home.js'),
3  auth: {
4    login: require('routes/auth/login.js'),
5    logout: require('routes/auth/logout.js'),
6    register: require('routes/auth/register.js')
7  }
8};

Note that routes.index will be undefined as you would hope.

Specifying Another Directory

You can specify which directory you want to build a tree of (if it isn't the current directory for whatever reason) by passing it as the second parameter. Not specifying the path (requireDirectory(module)) is the equivelant of requireDirectory(module, __dirname):

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory');
2module.exports = requireDirectory(module, './some/subdirectory');

For example, in the example in the Usage section we could have avoided creating routes/index.js and instead changed the first lines of app.js to:

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory');
2var routes = requireDirectory(module, './routes');

Options

You can pass an options hash to require-directory as the 2nd parameter (or 3rd if you're passing the path to another directory as the 2nd parameter already). Here are the available options:

Whitelisting

Whitelisting (either via RegExp or function) allows you to specify that only certain files be loaded.

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory'),
2  whitelist = /onlyinclude.js$/,
3  hash = requireDirectory(module, {include: whitelist});

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory'),
2  check = function(path){
3    if(/onlyinclude.js$/.test(path)){
4      return true; // don't include
5    }else{
6      return false; // go ahead and include
7    }
8  },
9  hash = requireDirectory(module, {include: check});

Blacklisting

Blacklisting (either via RegExp or function) allows you to specify that all but certain files should be loaded.

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory'),
2  blacklist = /dontinclude\.js$/,
3  hash = requireDirectory(module, {exclude: blacklist});

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory'),
2  check = function(path){
3    if(/dontinclude\.js$/.test(path)){
4      return false; // don't include
5    }else{
6      return true; // go ahead and include
7    }
8  },
9  hash = requireDirectory(module, {exclude: check});

Visiting Objects As They're Loaded

require-directory takes a function as the visit option that will be called for each module that is added to module.exports.

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory'),
2  visitor = function(obj) {
3    console.log(obj); // will be called for every module that is loaded
4  },
5  hash = requireDirectory(module, {visit: visitor});

The visitor can also transform the objects by returning a value:

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory'),
2  visitor = function(obj) {
3    return obj(new Date());
4  },
5  hash = requireDirectory(module, {visit: visitor});

Renaming Keys

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory'),
2  renamer = function(name) {
3    return name.toUpperCase();
4  },
5  hash = requireDirectory(module, {rename: renamer});

No Recursion

1var requireDirectory = require('require-directory'),
2  hash = requireDirectory(module, {recurse: false});

Run Unit Tests

1$ npm run lint
2$ npm test

License

MIT License

Author

Troy Goode (troygoode@gmail.com)