How do I use javascript require?

Question

I have spent a day trying to figure this out. Given my js knowledge is dated I end up sorting out a moshpit of 'new' technologies where every doc and author expects you to know these things. It all creates one big brainfog. So I ask if anyone can explain how i enable require and Request in the code Im trying out.

To be specific, I have a working php API on my server using Hawk HTTP authentication. I am trying out the example javascript from the Github repo.

https://github.com/hueniverse/hawk

Client Code:

const Request = require('request');
const Hawk = require('hawk');


// Client credentials

const credentials = {
    id: 'dh37fgj492je',
    key: 'werxhqb98rpaxn39848xrunpaw3489ruxnpa98w4rxn',
    algorithm: 'sha256'
}

// Request options

const requestOptions = {
    uri: 'http://example.com:8000/resource/1?b=1&a=2',
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {}
};

// Generate Authorization request header

const header = Hawk.client.header('http://example.com:8000/resource/1?b=1&a=2', 'GET', { credentials: credentials, ext: 'some-app-data' });
requestOptions.headers.Authorization = header.field;

// Send authenticated request

Request(requestOptions, function (error, response, body) {

    // Authenticate the server's response

    const isValid = Hawk.client.authenticate(response, credentials, header.artifacts, { payload: body });

    // Output results

    console.log(`${response.statusCode}: ${body}` + (isValid ? ' (valid)' : ' (invalid)'));
});

Error

ReferenceError: require is not defined

I can relate to that this would cause an error when require is not part of plain javascript. What will i need to understand/learn/implement to make this work? Note that this is all on the client side.

Answer 1

The module you are looking at is designed to run under NodeJS (which has native support for require ) and not in a browser.

You might be able to get it to run in the browser , but it is likely that you cannot due to the same origin policy and should not because it would leak your credentials to anyone who visits your website.

Answer 2

require is part of the node API and is not available in the browser. In order to use modules in the browser, you will need to run your code through a bundler such as Webpack or Browserify first.

Be aware that there are still some modules (such as fs ) which cannot run in the browser due to the way they interact with the system (ie reading a file from disk). I believe request falls in that same category.

I recommend you use Browserify to start out, due to its simplicity.