If you've ever struggled with requiring/importing files using long, nested relative paths, you're in the right place. In this article, I'll show a method for importing files using standard Node.js solutionβno need to rely on additional packages. The import mapping is available starting from Node.js 12+, offers a cleaner way to import files and works for both require
and import
(ESM), but for packages that have large numbers of subpaths, this might cause package.json
bloat and maintenance issues.
Let's say you have the directory structure.
node_modules/
src/
controllers/
user.controller.js
routes/
users.route.js
models/
user.model.js
services/
user.service.js
test/
.env
index.js
package.json
Firstly, define imports
property in package.json
. In the codes below, #root
is the project root, #src
houses the source code, and #controllers
is the specific directory.
{
"imports": {
"#root/*.js": "./*.js",
"#src/*.js": "./src/*.js",
"#controllers/*.js": "./src/controllers/*.js"
}
}
Require/import it file using the path alias.
// users.route.js
const express = require("express");
const router = express.Router();
const userController = require("#src/controllers/user.controller.js");
router.get("/users/profile", userController.getProfile);
module.exports = router;
Note: Do not forget .js extension when you import or require a file.
If you have "type": "module"
in the package.json
file, you should use import
syntax. If you don't, you should use require
syntax. Adding "type": "module"
to the package.json
enables ES 6 modules. For more info, see here.
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