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Npm link, wait, what!? Yeah npm link, a way to test npm packages as you develop them. This is a little something I learned last week and need to write it down so I remember how to do it.
I was working on the THAT Conference api and needed to add a custom GraphQL scalar for a ‘Slug’. In this particular case I am working with member slugs, though the Slug scalar will be utilized for any of our slug needs.
The package project, that-api, will contain the new Slug scalar located locally at ~/tc/that-api.
The api project, that-api-members, will be using the new scalar located locally at ~/tc/that-api-members.
After a bunch of hacking, etc. its was time to test the npm package in the api project. Here are the steps. This assumes that both packages pass tests, build and run. Both these projects use Babel and output to a folder named __build__. Package name is @thatconference/api
Starting with that-api
$ cd ~/tc/that-api
$ npm run validate
$ npm run build
$ cd __build__
$ npm link
$ cd ..
$ npm run dev
Now at the api project that-api-members
$ cd ~/tc/that-api-members
$ npm run validate
$ npm link @thatconference/api
$ npm run validate
$ npm run start:watch
At this point the that-api-members project is running using the linked that-api package, not the one downloaded into its node_modules folder.
So to undo this. I am not 100% sure this is correct, but it seems to work.
Unlink the the package from that-api-members.
$ ^c
$ cd ~/tc/that-api-members
$ npm unlink @thatconference/api
$ npm i @thatconference/api
Stop the running code and unlink to remove the link from npm which removes it from global location `{prefix}/lib/node_modules/<package>`
$ ^c
$ cd ~/tc/that-api/
$ npm unlink
$ cd ..
When you unlink a package it removes it from packages.json, so we need to then add it back. This is why we removed the global link first so we could install and get the package, not the link.
A Few Notes
- If you use a node version manager like nodenv, both the application and package need to run the same version or the application will not be able to locate the link.
- Using the command
npm --link=truemay show linked location in your node_modules.
oct 2020: instruction fixes
In June I purchased my first MacBook Pro (I should really write about this sometime). One simple feature I really enjoy is that the machine will announce the time at the top of each hour. I don’t know why, I just really like that feature.
At work I am still on Microsoft Windows-based machines and wanted to have this same feature on them. So I did some digging around and found a VBScript that will do it. I added the code below to a sayhour.vbs file and set up as a scheduled task to run at the top of the hour. I have all my clocks showing 24 hour time so their is no need for AM or PM, which personally drives me batty anyway.
' Say the following hour
Dim speaks, speech
speaks= "It's " & hour(time) & " hours"
set speech = CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks
Spending so much time in PowerShell now I wanted to solve this same issue there. Again some looking around and digging in to the C# library SpeechSynthesizer I have a solution. This too will run from a scheduled task. The only part I have not been able to figure out is how to keep the cmd box to show when it runs. The below code is saved in a sayhour.ps1 file and set up as a schedule task to to run at the top of the hour.
# Say the following hour
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.speech
$speech = New-Object System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer
$speech.Speak("It's $((Get-Date).hour) hours")
I know have my machine at work saying the hour at the top of the hour. I quite like it.
Stuff From an IT Slug 