Access Native Node.js Modules within Intern

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Intern is an awesome unit and functional test suite from SitePen.  I've been using this utility extensively over the past year, writing tests to make sure MDN's front-end is in good shape after code merges and pushes.

Sometimes when writing tests I'll want to make use of a node module to accomplish a test task, like making an HTTP request or getting environment information.  It isn't as easy as making the same dependency path you would if you were writing a node module -- you're using the Dojo loader so you'll need to require those modules a bit differently:

define([
	'intern/dojo/node!http',
	'intern/dojo/node!process'
], function(http, process) { 

	// http and process now available from the Node.js environment

});

The dojo/node Dojo module gives your Intern test suite the ability to access native Node.js modules!

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Discussion

  1. Seems like it’d be a lot easier to use the default require/exports/module style, so that your test module feels a lot more like Node. The above code could be written like so:

    define(function (require) {
      var http = require('intern/dojo/node!http');
      var process = require('intern/dojo/node!process');  
    });
    

    Still unfortunate that you have to go through intern/dojo/node but it works.

    It’s also in line with the conventions as prescribed in the Intern user guide at https://theintern.github.io/intern/#testing-commonjs-code

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