npm install require-directory

16 Dec 2012

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A common pattern I have found when building node.js applications revolves around how you refactor a large file into a directory of smaller files. For example, in an Express app you might start out defining routes in your app.js file, but eventually migrate those routes into a routes.js file that is then required into app.js. What happens when routes.js grows too large though? You chunk it up. You often end up with a routes/ directory, giving you a project structure that looks something like this:

• app.js
• routes/
  • auth.js
  • home.js
  • products.js

I also find it common to throw an index.js file into that routes/ directory, which might look like:

Eventually you might find that routes/auth.js has grown too large for one file as well, and you may refactor your files to look more like so:

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

This changes your routes/index.js file into:

... and so on and so forth. As node.js applications grow larger I see this pattern repeated over and over, often within the same application. To that end, I created require-directory - an npm package that simplifies that index.js file down into:

For more information, check out the package's GitHub page.

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