rocket:module

NPM packages and ES6 Modules (CJS/AMD too!) for Meteor, on the client and server.

DEPRECATED, in favor of Meteor 1.3 modules. I am no longer working on this. If you really want to use Webpack (which is what this is built on) check out webpack:webpack.

Installation

meteor update --release 1.2-rc.7
meteor add rocket:module

Note, a manual update to the release candidate of Meteor (version 1.2-rc.7 or greater) is required until 1.2 is officialy released.

Meteor and rocket:module

Many useful React components and React-related modules are available on NPM, and can be bundled for the client or the server with rocket:module. rocket:module also allows you to write CommonJS, AMD, or ES6 modules. rocket:module can be used for packages too, not just apps, and it will share (as much as possible) NPM dependencies across packages in an app (and the app itself).

Using NPM packages with rocket:module

You can use rocket:module to load NPM modules on the client or the server. Here's how:

1. Add rocket:module

meteor update --release 1.2-rc.7
meteor add rocket:module

Note that the update command is only temporary until Meteor 1.2 is released.

2. Add the NPM packages that you want to npm.json

Create an npm.json file in your app or package that specifies the dependencies you'd like from NPM. In most cases, you should leave the carrot (^) in front of the version number to ensure that the most compatible versions of your dependencies can be found. If you need more control of the versions in your package for whatever reason, you can (but try to avoid) plucking the carrot.

If you're making a package, be sure to add your npm.json file via api.addFiles().

/path/to/your/app/npm.json

{
  "react": "^0.13.1",
  "famous": "^0.7.0",
  "async": "^1.4.0"
}

3. Write code with ES6, CommonJS, or AMD modules.

rocket:module handles all the JavaScript files in your app. JavaScript files that end with .entry.js or are entirely named "entry.js" are entry points into your application. You'll need at least one entrypoint file. In each entrypoint you can begin importing whatever you need, like in the following ES6 examples:

/path/to/your/app/entry.js

import React from 'react'
import Node  from 'famous/core/Node'
import async from 'async'

...

or

/path/to/your/app/main.entry.js

import React from 'react'
import Node  from 'famous/core/Node'
import async from 'async'

...

Note, these last two entry point examples would run on boths sides, the client and the server.

Use CommonJS module syntax if you feel more comfortable with that:

/path/to/your/app/server/entry.js

let React = require('react')
let Node  = require('famous/core/Node')
let async = require('async')

...

Heck. If you really like AMD, use it:

/path/to/your/app/server/entry.js

define([
    'react',
    'famous/core/Node',
    'async',
], function(
    React,
    Node,
    async,
) {
    ...
})

You've just imported React, Famous, and async from NPM.

Note, rocket:module works on both sides, client and server! The last two entry point examples run on the server because they're in a server folder. Now that's something to feel good about.

You can also import local files!

/path/to/your/app/client/entry.js

import somethingLocal from './path/to/local/file'

...

Note, this last one loads on the client only because it's in a client folder.

That's basically it! See the example app for an actual example. See the example package to learn how to use rocket:module in a Meteor package.

Module load order

All your entrypoint files load in the same order as normal files would, based on Meteor's load order rules.

Note that Meteor's load order rules don't apply to any files that you've ever imported or required into any other file. In this case, the order is defined by you, and loading starts from your entrypoint files. Imported or required files are completely ignored by Meteor's load order mechanism.

Files that are not entrypoint files and that are never imported into any other file are ignored by rocket:module. Those files are handled exclusively by Meteor's load order mechanism, not by rocket:module.

Caveats

Modifying npm.json

If you make a change to npm.json, the server will reload as expected, but will fail to update your NPM dependencies. This will be fixed in rocket:module v1.0.0. For now, there are two ways you can work around this (choose one):

1. Relative to your app, run npm install inside of both ./meteor/local/rocket-module/platform-builds/web.browser and ./meteor/local/rocket-module/platform-builds/os.
2. Stop your Meteor server, remove .meteor/local/rocket-module relative to your app, restart Meteor. This option is easier to do, but takes longer because rocket:module will have to re-install all NPM dependencies again.

Build lag

You may experience a build delay (sometimes around a minute long) due to a possible bug in the release candidate of Meteor. I hope we can get to the bottom of it soon. See meteor/meteor#5067.

Future improvements

• rocket:module will have a cache before reaching 1.0.0. Until then, your app may take a long time to build if you've got lots of files. Added in rocket:module v0.8.1.
• Some more speed improvements around NPM package handling.
• Version 1.0.0 of rocket:module will handle source maps.
• Fix npm.json live reload.
• Cross-package imports/exports (ES6, CommonJS, or AMD).

Roadmap/tasks until 1.0.0

These steps are mostly in the order that they'll be developed. Semver rules apply starting from v0.2.0.

v0.2.0 (first usable version)

• Register a new compiler with Plugin.registerCompiler.
• Redo everything but with the files handed to rocket:module by Meteor, thus eliminating the two previous month's worth of work. (:

v1.0.0

• Switch to npm CLI instead of programmatic usage to see if that fixes random NPM bugs that don't happen when I try from CLI.
• Ensure that files that aren't handled by Webpack (for applications) are given back to Meteor so they can be executed.
• Let users specify rocket:module configs in rocket-module.json of the app.
  • Allow an aliases config option that works like that of Webpack's resolve.alias config option.
• Only read npm.json at the root level of a package or app, and same with rocket-module.js of an app.
• Use Webpack's caching feature so that only modified files are rebuilt. Make sure to write the replacement of window by RocketModule to the built files if Webpack's cache reads the built files.
• Make sure that files that are no longer in the project are also not present in rocket:module build cache.
• Does Meteor tell you which files have changed? If so, update only those files on the disk, leaving other files unchanged.
• Add sub-node_modules folders to the resolve/resolveLoader root option if there are any (it happens with dependency forks, but most of the time the first level node_modules folder will be flat because we're using NPM v3).
• Add useful Webpack loaders: babel, coffeescript, typescript, jsx, glslify, css, less, sass, and stylus.
  • babel
  • coffeescript
  • typescript
  • jsx (via babel)
  • glslify
  • css
  • less
  • sass
  • stylus
  • PNG/JPEG
• Get code splitting working (webpack/webpack issue #1296). Currently each entry point is having duplicate code, which is the same as Meteor's dependency handling.
• Handle source maps.
• Use npm outdated to detect if we need to run npm update. We'll need to run the update command when dependencies listed in npm.json files have changed in order to update the local packages.
• Make a enforceModules option that, when true, doesn't handle files unused by Webpack back to Meteor. This makes it so that files are only in your project if they are explicitly required or imported into another file, otherwise their code is completely ignored.
• Don't hand files in a modules folder back to Meteor. This can be used similarly to the enforceModules option to tell rocket:module that these files are meant only to be required or imported into other files, and if they are not, they won't be handed back to Meteor.
• Test in Windows.
• Report file-specific Webpack errors using corresponding InputFile.error() calls.
• Finish commented TODOs that are left in rocket:module.
• Update README with usage and configuration documentation.
  • Describe how to use npm dependencies.
  • Describe client/server file naming.
• Celebrate! Wooooo!

Post v1.0.0

• Install Webpack locally instead of using rocket:webpack, which will prevent architecture-specific builds of rocket:module.
• Add support for browserify transforms.