Create a Node Module

Introduction

This is a tutorial to guide you on how to create a Node module. You can create a Node module to share your code with others or to reuse your code in different projects. Such as Node.js, Bun.js or React.js.

Assumption

This tutorial is assumed that you source code are all in src folder, an you have a index.ts file in the root directory of your project.

If you have a different structure, you can modify the tsconfig.json file to match your project structure.

Steps

Install the following packages:

npm install -D typescript @types/node ts-node tsconfig-paths eslint eslint-config-airbnb-base eslint-plugin-import jasmine ncp javascript-obfuscator tsc-alias nyc

Add the following scripts to your package.json file:

{
  "name": "your-module-name",
  "main": "dist/src/index.js",
  "types": "dist/src/index.d.ts",
  "scripts": {
    "compile:type": "tsc --project tsconfig-node.json --declaration --declarationDir dist --emitDeclarationOnly && tsc-alias -p tsconfig-types.json",
    "compile:browser": "tsc --project tsconfig-browser.json && tsc-alias -p tsconfig-browser.json && rm -Rf dist/node/mocks && rm -Rf dist/node/spec && rm -Rf dist/node/debug",
    "compile:node": "tsc --project tsconfig-node.json && tsc-alias -p tsconfig.json && rm -Rf dist/browser/mocks && rm -Rf dist/browser/spec && rm -Rf dist/browser/debug",
    "build": "npm run compile:type && npm run compile:browser && npm run compile:node && npm pack",
  }
}

Create 3 files in the root directory of your project:

tsconfig-type.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "rootDir": ".",
    "paths": {
      "src/*": [
        "./src/*"
      ]
    },
    "lib": [
      "ES2021"
    ],
    "outDir": "./dist",
    "sourceMap": true,
    "target": "ES2015",
    "module": "CommonJS",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "declaration": false,
    "strict": true,
    "allowJs": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true
  },
  "include": [
    "src/",
    "index.ts",
    "**/*.tgz",
    "**/*.patch"
  ],
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules",
    "**/__tests__/*",
    "dist",
    "spec/",
    "mocks/",
  ]
}

tsconfig-node.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "rootDir": ".",
    "paths": {
      "src/*": [
        "./src/*"
      ]
    },
    "lib": [
      "ES2021"
    ],
    "outDir": "./dist/node",
    "sourceMap": true,
    "target": "ES2015",
    "module": "CommonJS",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "declaration": false,
    "strict": true,
    "allowJs": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true
  },
  "include": [
    "src/",
    "index.ts",
    "**/*.tgz",
    "**/*.patch"
  ],
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules",
    "**/__tests__/*",
    "dist",
    "mocks/",
    "spec/"
  ]
}

tsconfig-browser.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "rootDir": ".",
    "paths": {
      "src/*": [
        "./src/*"
      ]
    },
    "lib": [
      "ES2021"
    ],
    "outDir": "./dist/browser",
    "sourceMap": true,
    "target": "ES2015",
    "module": "ES2015",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "declaration": false,
    "strict": true,
    "allowJs": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true
  },
  "include": [
    "src/",
    "index.ts",
    "**/*.tgz",
    "**/*.patch"
  ],
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules",
    "**/__tests__/*",
    "dist",
    "spec/",
    "mocks/",
  ]
}

After complete the above steps, you can run the following command to build your module:

npm run build

Then you will get a <your-module-name>.tgz file in the root directory of your project. You can publish this file to npm, or share it with others.

Then run the following command in your destination project to install your module:

npm install <your-module-name>.tgz

Introduction​

Steps​

Introduction

Steps