node-addon-loader

A simple loader to embed native addons in [node] or [electron] projects.

This package is a mix between:

- [node-loader] that loads a node module from an _absolute path_
- [file-loader] that loads copy a file into the bundle and return its path

This one package allows to load a node native addon, binary file will end up copied into the output directory and loaded dynamically from its _relative_ path.

Install

Add the package to your package.json

``bash
$ yarn add --dev node-addon-loader
`

Usage

Add the loader to your webpack.config.js for all .node native files.

webpack.config.js
`js
module.exports = {
module: {
rules: [
{
test: /\.node$/,
use: 'node-addon-loader',
options: [
basePath: resolve(__dirname),
]
}
]
}
}
`

Note the basePath option: it will instruct the loader of the "base" path, from where the [node] runtime will be started. It will generate loading path relative to this URL.
For example is you develop an [electron] app with a bundle emitted into dist/ directory, you want all the required paths (emitted require statements) to be relative to the current directory of the [electron] runtime (they all will be like dist/xxxx.node).

In your application

You require the file directly

`js
import node from 'relative/path/to/myLib.node';
// or
const node = require("relative/path/to/myLib.node");
`

or with the inline syntax:

Inline
`js
import node from 'node-addon-loader!./myLib.node';
`

with an alias

a good option is to keep your modules in some place and create aliases for them, such as:

`js
// webpack config
module.exports = {

resolve: {
alias: {
"myLib": "/path/to/myLib.node",
}
},

// ...

}
`

and then use your alias directly:

`js
import myLib from "myLib";
`

Thanks

big thanks go the the authors of [node-loader] and [file-loader] which I eagerly copied.

TODO

Fix the issue with emitFile`, see TODO in code.

All contributions are welcome, this is MIT do-whatever-you-want-I-dont-care code.

[node]: https://nodejs.org
[electron]: https://electron.atom.io/
[node-loader]: https://github.com/webpack-contrib/node-loader/blob/master/index.js
[file-loader]: https://github.com/webpack-contrib/file-loader