make it available as a commonjs module

[nicjansma]

I have a similar patch I'm working with. Instead of looking for exports at the end, I wrap the var joli statement in an a create function that returns joli.

The benefit of doing it this way, is you can use joli for two separate connections/databases.

The downside is, this forces Joli to be a CommonJS module.

Any thoughts on how to have it flexable (checking for exports, so it isn't required to be used as a CommonJS module) yet keeping the var joli in a closure to allow for separate joli instances?

e.g., my code is:

exports.create = function() {

    // START of original joli.js
    var joli = {
    ...
    }
    return joli;
};

[mfferreira]

I think both ideas can join like so:

if (exports) {
    exports.create = function() {
        return joli;
    };
}

[nicjansma]

Unfortunately, that doesn't allow you to have two separate joli instances, since they're created off the same var.

[nicjansma]

Maybe:

var joliCreator = function() {
    var joli = { ... };
    return joli;
};
var joli = joliCreator();
if (exports) {
    exports.joli = joliCreator;
}

Then, you can get a new Joli instance by calling require('joli').joli(), and yet joli is still a global var if you're not using CommonJS.

[mfferreira]

Oh right. Well u take some parts out from that:

var joli = function() {
    this.each = function() { 
        ...
    };
    this.extend = function() { 
        ...
    };
    return this;
};
if (exports) {
    exports.joli = joli;
}

Its about the same thing, just a different approach.

[nicjansma]

But that doesn't give you parity for existing apps, since joli is now a function that needs to be executed first, correct?

For example, if someone isn't using CommonJS, they would now have to use:

var myjoli = joli();

That's why I suggested a separate function joliCreator(), then still setting joli as an object, and exporting that, you get parity for non-CommonJS cases, as well as the exports for CommonJS (which would be slightly differently called like var joli = exports('joli').joli(), but that seems reasonable)

[mfferreira]

Correct. Maybe just one minor change then:

var joliCreator = function() {
    var joli = { ... };
    return joli;
};
var joli = joliCreator();
if (exports) {
    exports.joli = joliCreator();
}

[nicjansma]

Cool, that works great.

[xavierlacot]

Hi guys,

I have just pushed a variation of your common work :

var joli = {
    // all the previous stuff
};

if (typeof exports === 'object' && exports) {
    exports = function() {
        var api = {
            connect: function(database) {

                if (database) {
                    joli.connection = new joli.Connection(database);
                }

                return joli;
            }
        };

        return api;
    }();
}

This allows to either load the library the way we did before:

Titanium.include('joli.js');
joli.connection = new joli.Connection('your_database_name');

or the new way:

var joli = require('path/to/joli').connect('your_database_name');

Thanks both for the contribution!

[nicjansma]

Thanks Xavier. The one change that isn't captured in your update is the ability to use Joli on two separate databases, because var joli = {} is initialized at the root of the module, instead of in a function closure: function() { var joli = ...; return joli}.

The parsing of CommonJS modules may be cached, so the root-level var joli is only ever initialzied once. With your change, the second call to .connect() will overwrite the settings of previous calls.

For example:

var joli1 = require('path/to/joli').connect('db1');
var joli2 = require('path/to/joli').connect('db2'); // joli1 now points to db2