What is the purpose of Node.js module.exports and

Question

What is the purpose of Node.js module.exports and how do you use it?

I can't seem to find any information on this, but it appears to be a rather important part of Node.js as I often see it in source code.

According to the Node.js documentation:

module

A reference to the current module. In particular module.exports is the same as the exports object. See src/node.js for more information.

But this doesn't really help.

What exactly does module.exports do, and what would a simple example be?

Answer 1

the refer link is like this:

exports = module.exports = function(){
    //....
}

the properties of exports or module.exports ,such as functions or variables , will be exposed outside

there is something you must pay more attention : don't override exports .

why ?

because exports just the reference of module.exports , you can add the properties onto the exports ,but if you override the exports , the reference link will be broken .

good example :

exports.name = 'william';

exports.getName = function(){
   console.log(this.name);
}

bad example :

exports = 'william';

exports = function(){
     //...
}

If you just want to exposed only one function or variable , like this:

// test.js
var name = 'william';

module.exports = function(){
    console.log(name);
}   

// index.js
var test = require('./test');
test();

this module only exposed one function and the property of name is private for the outside .

Answer 2

module.exports is the object that's actually returned as the result of a require call.

The exports variable is initially set to that same object (i.e. it's a shorthand "alias"), so in the module code you would usually write something like this:

var myFunc1 = function() { ... };
var myFunc2 = function() { ... };
exports.myFunc1 = myFunc1;
exports.myFunc2 = myFunc2;

to export (or "expose") the internally scoped functions myFunc1 and myFunc2.

And in the calling code you would use:

var m = require('./mymodule');
m.myFunc1();

where the last line shows how the result of require is (usually) just a plain object whose properties may be accessed.

NB: if you overwrite exports then it will no longer refer to module.exports. So if you wish to assign a new object (or a function reference) to exports then you should also assign that new object to module.exports

---

It's worth noting that the name added to the exports object does not have to be the same as the module's internally scoped name for the value that you're adding, so you could have:

var myVeryLongInternalName = function() { ... };
exports.shortName = myVeryLongInternalName;
// add other objects, functions, as required

followed by:

var m = require('./mymodule');
m.shortName(); // invokes module.myVeryLongInternalName

Answer 3

There are some default or existing modules in node.js when you download and install node.js like http, sys etc.

Since they are already in node.js, when we want to use these modules we basically do like import modules, but why? because they are already present in the node.js. Importing is like taking them from node.js and putting them into your program. And then using them.

Whereas Exports is exactly the opposite, you are creating the module you want, let's say the module addition.js and putting that module into the node.js, you do it by exporting it.

Before I write anything here, remember, module.exports.additionTwo is same as exports.additionTwo

Huh, so that's the reason, we do like

exports.additionTwo = function(x)
{return x+2;};

Be careful with the path

Lets say you have created an addition.js module,

exports.additionTwo = function(x){
return x + 2;
};

When you run this on your NODE.JS command prompt:

node
var run = require('addition.js');

This will error out saying

Error: Cannot find module addition.js

This is because the node.js process is unable the addition.js since we didn't mention the path. So, we have can set the path by using NODE_PATH

set NODE_PATH = path/to/your/additon.js

Now, this should run successfully without any errors!!

One more thing, you can also run the addition.js file by not setting the NODE_PATH, back to your nodejs command prompt:

node
var run = require('./addition.js');

Since we are providing the path here by saying it's in the current directory ./ this should also run successfully.

Answer 4

A module encapsulates related code into a single unit of code. When creating a module, this can be interpreted as moving all related functions into a file.

Suppose there is a file Hello.js which include two functions

sayHelloInEnglish = function() {
  return "Hello";
};
sayHelloInSpanish = function() {
  return "Hola";
};

We write a function only when utility of the code is more than one call.

Suppose we want to increase utility of the function to a different file say World.js,in this case exporting a file comes into picture which can be obtained by module.exports.

You can just export both the function by the code given below

var anyVariable={
 sayHelloInEnglish = function() {
      return "Hello";
    };
  sayHelloInSpanish = function() {
      return "Hola";
    }; 
}
module.export=anyVariable;

Now you just need to require the file name into World.js inorder to use those functions

var world= require("./hello.js");

Answer 5

What is the purpose of a module system?

It accomplishes the following things:

1. Keeps our files from bloating to really big sizes. Having files with e.g. 5000 lines of code in it are usually real hard to deal with during development.
2. Enforces separation of concerns. Having our code split up into multiple files allows us to have appropriate file names for every file. This way we can easily identify what every module does and where to find it (assuming we made a logical directory structure which is still your responsibility).

Having modules makes it easier to find certain parts of code which makes our code more maintainable.

How does it work?

NodejS uses the CommomJS module system which works in the following manner:

1. If a file wants to export something it has to declare it using module.export syntax
2. If a file wants to import something it has to declare it using require('file') syntax

Example:

test1.js

const test2 = require('./test2');    // returns the module.exports object of a file

test2.Func1(); // logs func1
test2.Func2(); // logs func2

test2.js

module.exports.Func1 = () => {console.log('func1')};

exports.Func2 = () => {console.log('func2')};

Other useful things to know:

1. Modules are getting cached. When you are loading the same module in 2 different files the module only has to be loaded once. The second time a require() is called on the same module the is pulled from the cache.
2. Modules are loaded in synchronous. This behavior is required, if it was asynchronous we couldn't access the object retrieved from require() right away.