找不到执行外部功能的用户脚本的NodeJS模块

Question

I am quite new to nodeJS.

I am using the nodeJS module node-workflow

Basically, this module is an orchestrator that takes a custom javascript script (=workflow definition), then serialize it and store it in a REDIS db (for example), and execute on-demand later on by the node-workflow module.

A workflow definition is composed of task, like this:

var my_external_module = require('my_external_module');

var workflow = module.exports = {
        name: 'Workflow Test',
        chain: [{
                    name: 'TASK 1',
                    timeout: 30,
                    retry: 1,
                    body: function(job, cb) {
                        // Execute external function
                        my_external_module.hello("Monkey");
                        return cb(null)
                    },
                },
...

First I put my function my_external_module.hello() in a .js file beside the workflow script. When I run the node-workflow module I get the following error:

Error initializing runner:

[ReferenceError: my_external_module is not defined]

So I have created a module my_external_module , and in: ./node_modules/my_external_module/index.js

    module.exports = {
        hello: function(name) {
            console.log("Hello, " + name);
        }
    };

When I run the node-workflow module I get the same error:

Error initializing runner:

[ReferenceError: my_external_module is not defined]

It seems that the require(...) shall stands in one of the .js files of the node-workflow module, so I would have to hack one of the files of the module, but it is a bit dirty.

Is there something I missed?

Or is there a way to define a $PATH like in Python in order to my function to be accessible from everywhere.

Answer 1

You have to require it as:

var my_external_module = require('./my_external_module');

Notice the ./ this means Node should search for a file like ./my_external_module.js

If you omit the ./ Node looks at the installed modules on (usually) node_modules directory