Node.js Babel build and npm module-alias

Question

I'm using module-alias for my Node.js + Express.js project, running it with Babel for ES2015 support.

App works perfect when started with babel-node , however, if I first build it with babel (from package.json ):

"build": "babel ./app --out-dir ./app_dist"

And then start:

"start": "node ./app_dist/bin/www"

It obviously cannot find the correct path specified with module-alias. Instead of looking into app_dist , Node.js searches for import in app , finds ES2015 import directive which it does not understand and throws:

SyntaxError: Unexpected token import

If I change aliases before start of that build, from app to app_dist , it works, but the question is, how to map those aliases (or how to use different _moduleAliases configuration) so that app resolves the paths correctly on development and production?

Maybe there is another way to alias modules with such stack? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Found solution for this issue.

In order to set the relative path aliases with module-alias , they shoul be defined not in package.json , but in JavaScript file inside the root directory that will be transpiled with Babel.

In my case, creating an aliases.js script inside config directory like this:

import path from 'path';
import moduleAlias from 'module-alias';

moduleAlias.addAlias('@root', path.resolve(__dirname, '../../'));

Will result in path resolving relatively to the current working directory, solving described problem.