Slightly OT: does anyone have a good explanation for module.exports vs exports and for the expression 'exports = module.exports = someFunction' often found in modules?
`module` defaults to {
id: ...
exports: {}
parent:...
filename:...
loaded:...
exited:...
children:...
paths:...
}
Every file essentially has two lines at the top.
this = module.exports;
var exports = module.exports;
foo = 'bar'; // can also be written as this.foo = 'bar';
exports.foo = 'bar';
The return value of `require` is `module.exports`, which may be reassigned.
Initially, the global `exports` variable is set to the same value as `module.exports`. Writing `exports = module.exports = ...` ensures they have the same value as you would expect.
But where should they have the same value? I thought require returns just module.exports if it exists and ignores exports.
It's incredibly confusing and they should have just picked one way to export data, instead of three.
module.exports = exports = { hello: 'hello', world: 'world' };
exports.yetAnother = 'yet another exports key';
===
and this yield
require('./hoge') -> {
hello: 'hello',
world: 'world',
yetAnother: 'yet another exports key'
}
=== hoge.js ===
module.exports = { hello: 'hello', world: 'world' };
exports.yetAnother = 'yet another exports key';
===
require('./hoge') -> // { hello: 'hello', world: 'world' }
or
=== hoge.js ===
exports = { hello: 'hello', world: 'world' };
exports.yetAnother = 'yet another exports key';
===
require('./hoge') -> // {}
But: to get all objects do I have to assign module.exports to exports (so change the order from your first example)?:
exports = module.exports = { hello: 'hello', world: 'world' };
To be honest, I'm not quite sure about commonJS require implementation of nodeJS. But as long as I'm understand,
1. Use `module.exports` if you want to assign exports by object literal
2. Use `exports.[key]` if you want to assign exports brick by brick.
3. Use `exports = module.exports = {...}` or `module.exports = exports` if you want to ensure both functionality; you can assign `exports.[key] after assign exports by object literal.
http://nodejs.org/docs/v0.6.18/api/modules.html#modules_the_...
https://gist.github.com/2692091
This fixes part of the problem, but what happens when you reference './models/user.js' from the file 'auth.js' but then auth grows in size and you decide to divide it and put it in auth/facebook.js, auth/twitter.js, etc. -- well, now you are fucked.
This gives you the flexibility to transparently change the file into a folder + index.*, then break functionality up into pieces that live inside that folder.