Using Scoped NPM Packages

[ghasemkiani]

NPM is the most widely used package manager for NodeJS. It has more than 600,000 packages with hundreds of millions of downloads per day.

NodeJS uses directory hierarchy for finding modules. Specifically, it searches node_modules subdirectory in the current folder or its parent folders for the required modules.

Naming packages is important for several reasons. Firstly, your package name must be unique. Secondly, your chosen name should be expressive for your package.

Now this leads to a lot of problems. Consider, for example, that you want to create a package named dom for working with the document object model. Chances are someone has already put a package with that name on npm. On the other hand, let's assume that you need a package for working with DOM. Can you offhandedly run npm install dom and expect to find what you want?

As you can see, a simple name cannot satisfactorily define a package. What we need is some sort of namespace. Scoped packages give you this functionality. Instead of dom, you can name your package @yourname/dom. This prevent name clashes and defines your dom package more thoroughly.

In order to create a scoped package, add --scope yourname to npm init command:

    npm init --scope=yourname

This adds a line like the following to your package.json file:

    {
        "name": "@yourname/dom"
    }

When requiring scoped packages, you must use the complete name:

    const dom = require("@yourname/dom");

The same applies to including the package as a dependency in package.json:

{
    "dependencies": {
        "@yourname/dom": "^1.0.0"
    }
}   

In npm, scoped packages are private by default (and they require paid membership in npmjs.com). If you want to publish your scoped package publicly, you should set the public access option when publishing it (only the first time):

    npm publish --access=public

When installing scoped packages, you must use the complete name:

    npm install "@yourname/dom"

After installing a scoped package, npm creates a subdirectory @yourname under node_modules and puts your package in that folder:

    node_modules
        │
        └──@yourname
            │
            └──dom
                │
                ├──package.json
                └──index.js

Namespacing is very useful for differentiating packages. Scoped NodeJS packages are already being used in many popular JavaScript projects.

Comments

[scipio]

Don't miss out on my Learn Python Series @Ghasem :-)

[ghasemkiani]

Of course. Thank you for letting me know.

[angela.ghkh]

@yourname/dom ... yep! thanks for the info ! useful

[abdulmanan]

I'm not in a javaScript but have a plan to learn it in the future,
A little c # programmer here :p
the package name is one of the major parts of programming blocks,
It makes us remember what we are doing.
Thanks for sharing this amazing knowledge with us brother.
Yeah, we can say namespace is the backbone of nodejs packages.

[haji]

nice post mashti

[saddam1210]

Nice post. That idioms time u were 3-4 times in a day. Now r u busy sir ???

[mgood]

@ghasemkiani - I am not sure if you are still posting or not?
2 things:

1. If you are still explaining English idioms here is one I used the other day in a response - the person was "gaming the system".
2. I wrote a post about a quote of Mawlānā Rumi as an introduction to him and some philosophy. If you happen to be interested - Link

[ghasemkiani]

Thank you. Currently, I am preparing some educative posts on JavaScript programming. And thanks for the link on Rumi. I will definitely check it out!

[muhammadalikatu]

Looking forward to your next educative post @ghasemkiani

[mgood]

Thanks.

[sam1210]

Excellent job. Learning new things. Thank you for this opportunity.

[divaa]

Good post, can you please share post on selenium?

[nimik]

Nice post.

[gym.lover]

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[rohit12123]

Good job.Keep it up

[andrekweku]

Hi @ghasemkiani. I'm currently on a project of creating a local exchange of steem to my local currency(Ghana Cedis) but i have no idea of how to call a user's steemit info when he/she logs in into that site with their steemit account. Thought you could be the best person to help.

[ghasemkiani]

If you use JavaScript, Steem.js is the official JavaScript library for the Steem blockchain.

If by user info you mean the profile characteristics of the user, you can use the steem.api.getAccounts method. The profile info is in the json-metadata field.

[andrekweku]

Thanks very much. I’ll try my hands on that.

[vahid564]

Can you help me? @ghasemkiani

[hadipedia]

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[cosmicboy123]

Thanks for sharing this! I installed NodeJS on FreeBSD 2 years ago for a developer but i wasn´t fully aware of its structure and capabilities! Am following you, you have my upvote and resteem for this post of yours! Greetings from Mérida, Yucatán, México the Maya Land

[albob]

Hi my brother
Teach me to use better esteem and useful
In order to get more votes like you.
Thank you

[syedkashifhussai]

Great information sir @ghasemkiani . Im very sorry actually your topic very difficult but i will try my best .
Stay blessed and stee on!

[kangsukin]

nice post!!!

[syedkashifhussai]

Thank you very much for coming my post sir @ghasemkiani . Sir upload new post . Im waiting your new post .
Stay blessed

[eljose27]

Buena publicacion

[master11641]

NPM is greate;i use it for manage angular packages.

[ghasemkiani]

Thank you. And happy New Year! Hope to see you soon.

[kazmi1]

informative and great post.

[naeemahmedd]

Excellent post thank you for shere this info.....??

[charliechain]

Very good information about npm .
I had no knowledge about and you did analysis about it . Thank you so much.

[msabbir]

thanks for sharing this post..
i appreciate your post.. best of luck..

[madiha]

Good job. Keep it up. Which programming language did you like most?

[sushovon002]

Useful content sir... appreciate your work...👍

[mdfahim]

You are so intelligent @ghasemkiani

[steemibu351]

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[raisa.marzan]

nice post with beautiful words.

[spaminator]

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[rojib]

your ppst is very informative.........i like this post.........

[rzaman]

Amazing post......i like your post..... thanks for sharing......

[hopsy]

Scopes are a way of grouping related packages together, and also affect a few things about the way npm treats the package.
Each npm user/organization has their own scope, and only you can add packages in your scope. This means you don't have to worry about someone taking your package name ahead of you. Thus it is also a good way to signal official packages for organizations.
Scoped packages can be published and installed as of
npm@2 and are supported by the primary npm registry. Unscoped packages can depend on scoped packages and vice versa. The npm client is backwards-compatible with unscoped registries, so it can be used to work with scoped and unscoped registries at the same time.
Thanks for the post

[rkaitra]

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[blazing]

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[aliakbar2]

Nice post.

[zakir.quetta]

Nice post keep it up.

[harmonic]

Thanks for your javascript post . I will waiting for your next post.

[rasel1234]

very well post great writing D:)

[nishadhasan]

@ghasemkiani OMG. Now you start practicing node.js? You are genius.

[iskandar17]

Good post @ghasemkiani

[agyapong]

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[five34a4b]

well done ghasemkiani!

[life.story]

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If you like you can see wonderful places in our country and I will be so happy if I know your comments about my posts dear

[nayim533]

nice post ..thanking for learning post

[haji]

resteem

[gym.lover]

fallow and support me mashti :)
i will fallow and support you very soon
i need your helping
thank you

[spaminator]

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Your Reputation Could be a Tasty Snack with the Wrong Comment!

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[malibeauty]

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thanks for sharing....

[riyad11]

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[zayanfaruk]

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