Sohail Jafri

Posted on Nov 13

Stay Ahead of the Game: Leverage Chokidar CLI to Maximize Your Coding Efficiency!

#webdev #backend #javascript #tutorial

This article’ll explore a powerful setup that automates managing exports from multiple MongoDB models in your backend code. By leveraging a custom script and Chokidar CLI, you can eliminate the tedious task of manually updating the models/index.ts file whenever you add or modify your models. Let’s dive in!

Introduction
Prerequisites
Setting Up the Script
Implementing Chokidar CLI
Running the Setup
Conclusion

Introduction

Managing multiple MongoDB models can become cumbersome, especially when it comes to maintaining the index.ts file that exports them for better code readability and organization. Manually updating this file every time you add or modify a model can be time-consuming and error-prone.

This article outlines a solution that automates this process, allowing you to focus on writing code instead of managing exports.

Prerequisites

Before we get started, ensure you have the following:

Node.js installed on your machine
A working MongoDB instance (optional) as you just export anything
Basic knowledge of JavaScript and Node.js

Setting Up the Script

Create a New Script: In your project directory, create a new script file (e.g., generateIndex.js).
Extract Exports from Models: Write a function to read your model files and extract the necessary exports. Here’s a simple example:

import { fileURLToPath } from 'url'
import path, { dirname, join, resolve } from 'path'
import * as fs from 'fs'

const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)
const __dirname = dirname(__filename)

const modelsDir = resolve(__dirname, '../models') // Adjust to your `models` folder
const outputFile = join(modelsDir, 'index.ts')

const getModelFiles = (dir: string): string[] => {
  let results: string[] = []
  const list = fs.readdirSync(dir)

  list.forEach((file) => {
    const filePath = join(dir, file)
    const stat = fs.statSync(filePath)

    if (stat && stat.isDirectory()) {
      // Recursively get model files from subdirectories
      results = results.concat(getModelFiles(filePath))
    } else if (file.endsWith('.model.ts') && file !== 'index.ts') {
      results.push(filePath)
    }
  })

  return results
}

const files = getModelFiles(modelsDir)

const exports = files.map((file) => {
  const relativePath = path.relative(modelsDir, file).replace(/\\/g, '/') // Normalize path for exports
  return `export * from './${relativePath.replace('.ts', '')}';`.trim()
})

fs.writeFileSync(outputFile, exports.join('\n'), 'utf8')

Save and Test the Script: Run the script to ensure it generates the src/script/generate-models.ts file correctly.

src/
├── scripts/
│   └── generateIndex.js
├── models/
│   ├── user.model.ts
│   └── post.model.ts
└── index.ts

Implementing Chokidar CLI

Install Chokidar CLI: If you haven’t already, install Chokidar CLI globally using npm or save as a dev dependency in your project:

global install

npm install -g chokidar-cli

dev dependency install

npm install --save-dev chokidar-cli

Set Up File Watching: Use Chokidar to watch your models directory and trigger the script whenever a change is detected:

We will create a few scrips in package.json file to watch the files and run the script.

"scripts": {
    "dev": "tsx watch src/index.ts",
    "start": "node dist/index.js",
    "compile": "tsc && npm run copy-pug",
    "prebuild": "npm run generate-models",
    "build": "npm install && npm run compile",
    "generate-models": "tsx src/scripts/generate-models.ts",
    "watch-files": "chokidar \"src/models/**/*.model.ts\" -c \"npm run generate-model-exports\""
  },

Note here we using tsx to run the script as we are using TypeScript, but you can replace this with ts-node(Typescript alt) or node (JavaScript) to run the script.

Run the Command: Execute the above command in your terminal to start watching for changes.

npm run watch-files

What Chakridar does is it watches the files and run the script whenever a change is detected.

Check the index.ts File: Ensure that your models/index.ts file is correctly updated with the exports from your model files.

export * from './user.model'
export * from './post.model'

Running the Setup

With everything in place, any time you add or modify a model file, Chokidar will automatically run your script, ensuring that your models/index.ts file is always up to date. This setup will significantly streamline your workflow and enhance productivity.

Conclusion

By implementing this script and using Chokidar CLI, you can automate the management of your MongoDB model exports, allowing you to focus more on development and less on repetitive tasks. Give it a try and see how it boosts your backend code productivity!

But this Chokidar CLI can be used for any file watching and running scripts like compling your Sass, Less or Stylus files, running tests, etc. It's a powerful tool that can save you a lot of time and effort.

Drop some 💖 and 🔥 if you found this article helpful and have any questions or need further clarification, feel free to reach out. Happy coding!

Sohail Jafri

Developer | Biker | Athlete

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Top comments (14)

sahilchaubey03 • Nov 13

This is a game changer! I've been manually updating my models forever. Can't wait to try out this Chokidar CLI setup. Thanks for sharing

Sohail Jafri • Nov 14

Do let me know if you find any difficulties

WebDevReigns • Nov 13

If someone wanted to customize this further, like adding custom export formats, how difficult would that be to integrate with Chokidar?

Sohail Jafri • Nov 14

No, it will be quite easy to alter the script and add any required format like js, ts or css

Memories From • Nov 13

The section on implementing the script was really helpful. I'm new to managing multiple models, and this really demystified the process. Thanks for writing this!