create-index

create-index program creates (and maintains) ES6 ./index.js file in target directories that imports and exports sibling files and directories.

Usage

Using CLI Program

npm install create-index

create-index --help

Options:
  --update-index  Recursively iterates target directories looking for "index.js"
                  files that start with "'create index';\n" (create-index index
                  file). Updates found index files. Does not create new index
                  files.                              [boolean] [default: false]

Examples:
  create-index ./src ./src/utilities        Creates or updates an existing
                                            create-index index file in the
                                            target (./src, ./src/utilities)
                                            directories.
  create-index --update-index ./src         Finds all create-index index files
  ./tests                                   in the target directories and
                                            descending directories. Updates
                                            found index files.

Using create-index Programmatically

import {
    writeIndex
} from 'create-index';

/**
 * @type {Function}
 * @param {Array<string>} directoryPaths
 * @throws {Error} Directory "..." does not exist.
 * @throws {Error} "..." is not a directory.
 * @throws {Error} "..." unsafe index.
 * @returns {boolean}
 */
writeIndex;

Note that the writeIndex function is synchronous.

import {
    findIndexFiles
} from 'create-index';

/**
 * @type {Function}
 * @param {string} directoryPath
 * @returns {Array<string>} List of directory paths that have create-index index file.
 */
findIndexFiles;

Gulp

Since Gulp can ran arbitrary JavaScript code, there is no need for a separate plugin. See Using create-index Programmatically.

import {
    writeIndex
} from 'create-index';

gulp.task('create-index', () => {
    writeIndex(['./target_directory']);
});

Note that the writeIndex function is synchronous.

Implementation

create-index program will look into the target directory.

If there is no ./index.js, it will create a new file, e.g.

'create index';

Created index file must start with 'create index';\n\n. This is used to make sure that create-index does not accidentally overwrite your local files.

If there are sibling files, index file will import them and export, e.g.

children-directories-and-files git:(master) ✗ ls -lah
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   5 gajus  staff   170B  6 Jan 15:39 .
drwxr-xr-x  10 gajus  staff   340B  6 Jan 15:53 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 gajus  staff    68B  6 Jan 15:29 bar
drwxr-xr-x   2 gajus  staff    68B  6 Jan 15:29 foo
-rw-r--r--   1 gajus  staff     0B  6 Jan 15:29 foo.js

Given the above directory contents, ./index.js will be:

'create index';

import bar from './bar';
import foo from './foo.js';

export {
    bar,
    foo
};

When file has the same name as a sibling directory, file import takes precedence.

Directories that do not have ./index.js in themselves will be excluded.

When run again, create-index will update existing ./index.js if it starts with 'create index';\n\n.

If create-index is executed against a directory that contains ./index.js, which does not start with 'create index';\n\n, an error will be thrown.