Modules

ES Modules are a way to isolate your JS files. This is similar to Node’s require syntax, but build-in to the JS language (rather than a proprietary Node feature).

Modern browsers support modules loaded from a script tag with type="module". This tells the browser that this JS code may load additional code from other files.

<script type="module">
  import { add } from "./maths.js";

  add(1, 2);
</script>

Generally (for wider browser support) apps use a tool called a “bundler” to parse all the imports and “bundle” them into a single file that older browsers will understand. For ease of learning we won’t be using a bundler yet.

Module scope

Modules help with JavaScript’s global variable problem: usually variables defined in one file are able to be accessed (and changed) in any other. This can be confusing and dangerous, since you can’t tell where things are defined/changed.

With modules variables defined in separate files are not accessible in another. This means you can have 100 variables named x, as long as they’re all in different files.

The only way to use a value from another module is to explicitly export it from one file, then import it where you want to use it.

Exports

Files can have two types of exports: “default” and “named”. A file can only have one default export, but can have many named exports. This is conceptually similar to the difference between module.exports = myFunction and module.exports = { myFunction, otherFunction } in Node.

This is how you create a default export:

const a = 1;
export default a;

And this is how you create a named export:

const a = 1;
export { a };

You can only default export a single thing, but you can have as many named exports as you like:

const a = 1;
const b = 2;
export { a, b };

You don’t have to export things at the end of the file. You can do it inline:

export const a = 1;
export const b = 2;

Imports

There are also two kinds of imports: default and named. The way you import a value must match the way you exported it. A default-exported variable must be default-imported (and vice versa).

This is how you import something that was default-exported:

// maths.js
const a = 1;
export default a;

// index.js
import a from "./maths.js";
console.log(a); // 1;

Named-exports must be imported with curly brackets:

// maths.js
export const a = 1;
export const b = 2;

// index.js
import { a } from "./maths.js";
console.log(a); // 1;

You can import as many named-exports as you like on the same line:

import { a, b } from "./maths.js";
console.log(a, b); // 1 2

Import paths must be valid URIs. They can be local to your machine ("./maths.js") or on the web ("https://cdn.pika.dev/lower-case@^2.0.1"). This means you must include the file extension for local files. Node lets you ignore this, but it is mandatory in the browser.

Challenge

To get started download the starter files, cd into the directory, then run npx servor workshop to start a dev server. ES Modules require a server to work, so you can’t just open the index.html file directly.

1. Split up the JS code in workshop/index.js into 3 files:
   • math.js containing the operator functions
   • calculate.js containing the calculate function
   • index.js containing the DOM event handlers
2. Change each file so they export and import everything they need to
3. Don’t forget browsers only support imports inside a script tag with type="module"