npm packet.json is incorrect

[gregveres]

Hi @rniemeyer

I am just moving my MVC app over to webpack and this package is one of the ones that I use. I was scratching my head as to why web pack was saying that it couldn't resolve the reference of require("knockout-jqautocomplete"). I had the npm package installed. It was clearly there in my npm_modules directory.

Then I started looking at the packages.json file for knockout and comparing it to knockout-jqautocomplete and I noticed that knockout had a main value in its json file and autocomplete did not. I added the main tag like this:

"main": "build/knockout-jqAutocomplete.js",

and all of a sudden it could find the package. So I think that main is required to tell the npm package user where the file is within the package. Would you be able to add that to the npm package?

[gregveres]

Getting another step closer, it looks like there are missing dependencies as well. The code depends on jquery and jquery-ui/autocomplete, but those aren't mentioned in the package.json file. I am not an expert on npm but I think that is where they are supposed to be mentioned.

I suspect that other people haven't run into this because they already have jquery and jquery-ui installed. I had jquery installed, but not jquery-ui.

Here is a snippet from jquery-validation's package.json indicating that it depends on jquery

  "main": "dist/jquery.validate.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "jquery": "^1.7 || ^2.0 || ^3.1"
  },

[gregveres]

You aren't alone in not having a main. The next package am dealing with is messenger from hubspot. They also don't have a main, so I did some reading to see if having a main is optional. This SO answer was useful https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22512992/node-js-package-json-main-parameter

There should be a main, but the answer also showed me how to work around it.

[rniemeyer]

@gregveres - hey! I am happy to make some changes, but it does already have a main in the package.json here: https://github.com/rniemeyer/knockout-jqAutocomplete/blob/master/package.json#L9. I can add the jquery/jquery UI dependencies though.

[gregveres]

That's weird. either my new glasses are failing me, or the version I was delivered didn't have it. I will check again since I have since deleted the npm package and decided to use it outside of npm.

OK, I just fetched it again and here is the package.json file that I get. It doesn't have main in it. I used this command to fetch it: npm install knockout-jqautocomplete

{
  "name": "knockout-jqautocomplete",
  "version": "0.4.4",
  "author": {
    "name": "Ryan Niemeyer"
  },
  "repository": {
    "type": "git",
    "url": "git://github.com/rniemeyer/knockout-jqAutocomplete.git"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "grunt": "~0.4.1",
    "grunt-contrib-uglify": "0.x.x",
    "grunt-contrib-jshint": "0.x.x",
    "grunt-contrib-watch": "0.x.x",
    "grunt-contrib-concat": "0.x.x",
    "grunt-contrib-jasmine": "0.x.x",
    "grunt-template-jasmine-istanbul": "0.x.x",
    "grunt-bower-task": "~0.3.4"
  },
  "licenses": [
    {
      "type": "MIT",
      "url": "http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT"
    }
  ],
  "gitHead": "68d39ccd2d4686ade4ca6fd97a5cc6a8fe5ea3b9",
  "description": "knockout-jqAutocomplete ================ *knockout-jqAutocomplete* is a [Knockout.js](http://knockoutjs.com/) plugin designed to work with jQuery UI's [autocomplete widget](http://jqueryui.com/autocomplete/).",
  "bugs": {
    "url": "https://github.com/rniemeyer/knockout-jqAutocomplete/issues"
  },
  "homepage": "https://github.com/rniemeyer/knockout-jqAutocomplete#readme",
  "_id": "knockout-jqautocomplete@0.4.4",
  "scripts": {},
  "_shasum": "c40480a0ab58a040a0fb8fe52f6862ffe593e851",
  "_from": "knockout-jqautocomplete@>=0.4.4 <0.5.0",
  "_npmVersion": "2.11.3",
  "_nodeVersion": "0.12.2",
  "_npmUser": {
    "name": "rniemeyer",
    "email": "rniemeyer@gmail.com"
  },
  "maintainers": [
    {
      "name": "rniemeyer",
      "email": "rniemeyer@gmail.com"
    }
  ],
  "dist": {
    "shasum": "c40480a0ab58a040a0fb8fe52f6862ffe593e851",
    "tarball": "https://registry.npmjs.org/knockout-jqautocomplete/-/knockout-jqautocomplete-0.4.4.tgz"
  },
  "_npmOperationalInternal": {
    "host": "packages-9-west.internal.npmjs.com",
    "tmp": "tmp/knockout-jqautocomplete-0.4.4.tgz_1456497262995_0.6810770942829549"
  },
  "directories": {},
  "_resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/knockout-jqautocomplete/-/knockout-jqautocomplete-0.4.4.tgz",
  "readme": "ERROR: No README data found!"
}

[rniemeyer]

@gregveres - ok - try installing version 0.5.0. It looks like the main field was added to package.json after 0.4.4 was published. Sorry for the issues.

[gregveres]

Yup it is there now. I see the main and the dependencies . Nice.

Thank you. BTW, just this morning I found a solution using webpack config. I am using the solution for Hubspot's messenger and signalR. You can use the NormalModuleReplacementPlugin to rewrite the dependency. In this case, I could have left the import in my code like this:

import "knockout-jqAutocomplete

then in my webpack config, I could add this line in the plugins section:

new webpack.NormalModuleReplacementPlugin(/^knockout-jqAutocomplete$/, 'knockout-jqAutocomplete/build/knockout-jqAutocomplete.js'),

That would let webpack find the proper file without it being listed in main for the package.