Path aliases with Vanilla Node JS

#node #express #codesnippet #vanilla

I've been working on a side-project that is more or less an experimental attempt to make a Laravel-like clone with the ExpressJS framework. Along the way, I thought to myself, "Is it possible to use path aliases with out Typescript?". I did some researching and founds lot of answers but no real, tangible solutions. I came up with something on my own. Although it's not terribly pretty or clever, it does what I want it to.

	// This is ugly
	// const Service = require('../app/services/Service');

	// Try this instead
	// const Service = alias('service/Service')

	const path = require('path');

	const aliases = {
	config: './config',
	bootstrap: './bootstrap',
	errors: './app/errors',
	app: './app',
	http: './app/http',
	models: './app/models',
	controllers: './app/http/controllers',
	services: './app/services',
	routes: './routes',
	middleware: './app/http/middleware',
	};

	alias = function(dir) {
	const dirArr = dir.split('/');
	if(dirArr.length > 1) {
	const mod = dirArr.pop();
	const newDirArr = dirArr.join('/');
	if(aliases[newDirArr]) {
	return require(path.resolve(aliases[newDirArr], mod));
	}
	return require(path.resolve(newDirArr, mod));
	}
	if(aliases[dirArr[0]]) {
	return require(path.resolve(aliases[dirArr[0]]));
	}
	return require(path.resolve(dir));
	};