Getting started with systemjs
Remarks#
This section provides an overview of what systemjs is, and why a developer might want to use it.
It should also mention any large subjects within systemjs, and link out to the related topics. Since the Documentation for systemjs is new, you may need to create initial versions of those related topics.
Installation or Setup
Detailed instructions on getting systemjs set up or installed.
Using SystemJS to load moment.js
SystemJS allows to write and use modular javacsript code that relies on ECMAScript 6 import and export statements. One good example is moment.js library, which started publishing ECMAScript 6 source code on npm since 2.10.0 release of moment.js.
Installing prerequisites
npm install moment
npm install systemjs
npm install traceurNote: SystemJS requries a transpiler to compile ECMAScript 6 javacsript into a code that could be run in current versions of browsers and node.js, none of which currently supports ECMAScript 6 modules. Current version of SystemJS uses and requires traceur by default so we need to install it, but SystemJS can be configured to use either traceur, babel or typescript (with the help of some plugins).
Adding example code
create file test.js:
import moment from 'moment';
export function test() {
const m1 = moment().format('LLL');
const m2 = moment().fromNow();
return `The moment is ${m1}, which was ${m2}`;
}This is very simple javascript module, which also shows that you can use other new ECMAScript 6 features besides import and export.
Running it in node.js
create file main.js
var SystemJS = require('systemjs');
SystemJS.config({
map: {
'traceur': 'node_modules/traceur/bin/traceur.js',
'moment': 'node_modules/moment/src'
},
packages: {
'moment': {
main: 'moment.js'
}
}
});
SystemJS.import('./test.js')
.then(function(test) {
var t = test.test();
console.log(t);
})
.catch(function(e) {
console.error(e)
});This file uses SystemJS.import to load our test.js file and execute test() function from it, instead of normal require. SystemJS has to be configured using SystemJS.config() so it could find source code for traceur and moment modules. The path for moment in map points to moment/src directory where ECMAScript 6 version of moment.js source code resides.
You can run this file using
node main.jsRunning it in the browser
create file index.html
<html>
<head>
<title>SystemJS example with moment.js</title>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<script src="node_modules/systemjs/dist/system.src.js"></script>
<script>
SystemJS.config({
map: {
'traceur': 'node_modules/traceur/bin/traceur.js',
'moment': 'node_modules/moment/src'
},
packages: {
'moment': {
main: 'moment.js'
}
}
});
SystemJS.import('./test.js')
.then(function(test) {
var t = test.test();
document.body.appendChild(
document.createTextNode(t)
);
})
.catch(function(e) {
console.error(e)
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>The only differences from node.js code is that we are loading SystemJS using <script> tag instead of require and we are adding text to the HTML document using appendChild instead of showing it in the console.