Overview - NPM: default package manager for JavaScript runtime environment, Node.js - consists of: 1. command line client (npm) 2. online database of public & paid-for packages
Package Management - package is collection of files & configurations wrapped up - can rely on work of other developers to move our projects along - can create our own packages and share with the world - dependencies: packages our app depends on
Package Managers - apps that accept code and provide services like versioning, change management, etc - const of at least two parts: 1. command line interface (CLI) - enables us to download, install/uninstall packages 2. registry - database of package information
JavaScript Package Management - before npm: embedded script tags used to share code - Node.js released in 2010 with npm - most widely used package manager
Getting Started with NPM - dont have to install since its part of Node.js - npm init: generates package.json file - npm install [-g] <package-name>: installs package into your project - optional -g (–global) flag installs package globally (everywhere in system)
{
"name": "npm-demo",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "",
"main": "index.js",
"scripts": {
"start": "node index.js",
"test": "some code to run test files"
},
"keywords": [],
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"dependencies": {
"express": "^4.17.1",
"mocha": "^8.1.3"
},
"devDependencies": {
"nodemon": "^2.0.4"
}
}
// KEYS:
// name: name of module this package.json is describing
// version: denotes the current version of the module
// description: contains a human-readable description about the module
// main: direction to the entry point to the module
// scripts:
// - keys in these key/value pairs is the name of a command that can be run
// - correseponding value of each key is the actual command that is run
// keywords: can help identify a package, related modules and software, and concepts
// author: author of module
// license: license for module
// dependencies: defines the other modules that this module uses in production
// devDependenciese: define the dependencies the module needs to run in development