无法导入节点模块

Question

I'm trying to improve my node script that essentially converts a modified LESS file to CSS. It ends up making a bunch of redundant CSS so I wanted to use another module to "minify" it. I tried the official LESS one as well as what seems to be a third party but neither work.

Both work via. the command line just fine, however whenever I try and import them in the script, it throws an error:

module.js:338
    throw err;
          ^
Error: Cannot find module 'clean-css'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:336:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:278:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:365:17)
    at require (module.js:384:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (M:\Sped\Custom CSS\compile.js:12:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:460:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:478:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:501:10)

I've attempted to install them multiple times both with and without the -g flag (not entirely sure what that even does).

I've found other questions like this but they seem to be the other way around in that they can import them in the script but no command line use, and they were on Mac or Linux.

Not sure if it makes much difference but I'm on Windows 10 64-bit.

Is anyone able to tell me what I can do to resolve this issue?

Answer 1

So, to start your node project, go into it's directory, and type:

npm init

This will guide you through the process, and create a package.json for you. The package.json will store all of your project dependencies. From this point you can add your "clean-css". Browse for the right package here:

https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=clean-css

If you wanted the wintersmith-clean-css installed locally (to this project only), and save to package.json, you would use the following:

npm install wintersmith-clean-css --save

This should get you up and running now.