ES for Eclipse Vert.x

# EcmaScript Modules

EcmaScript modules are the official module format for the JavaScript language. ESM are supported by ES4X by using one of the two options:

  • The initial script has extension .mjs
  • The initial script is prefixed with: mjs:

# Initial Script

For the naked eye, the initial script is not that different from the commonjs script, for example index.mjs:

import { Router } from '@vertx/web';
import { someRoute } from './routes';

const app = Router.router(vertx);

app.route('/').handler(someRoute);

vertx.createHttpServer()
  .requestHandler(app)
  .listen(8080);

In this case the someRoute is imported from the routes.mjs file:

export function someRoute(ctx) {
  ctx.response()
    .end('Hello from ES4X!');
}

# Compatibility

For compatibility reasons, you may have noticed that the import statement in the initial script, does not include an extension:


 



import { Router } from '@vertx/web';
import { someRoute } from './routes';

// ...

This is a small divergence from the official spec where ES4X loader will lookup modules as follows:

  1. Look up the exact file name: ./routes
  2. Look up with .mjs suffix: ./routes.mjs
  3. Look up with .js suffix: ./routes.js

WARNING

When working with ESM the require() is not available!

# Download Modules

Downloading modules at runtime is also possible. This feature is not ES4X specific. In fact it just relies on the official module loader from GraalJS. Importing such modules is as simple as:

import { VertxOptions } from 'https://unpkg.io/@vertx/[email protected]/mod.mjs';

There are a few rules to know:

  1. HTTP modules will not be downloaded if there is not security manager in place.
  2. If such module has a maven counter part module, that is will NOT be downloaded.
  3. Downloading executable code at runtime can be a security issue.

There could be cases where this could be useful, for example, to avoid a dependency on npm when code is not public.

WARNING

Downloaded modules will not process any dependencies or maven counter parts.

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