So, I'm a big fan of creating global namespaces in javascript. For example, if my app is named Xyz I normally have an object XYZ which I fill with properties and nested objects, for an example:
XYZ.Resources.ErrorMessage // = "An error while making request, please try again"
XYZ.DAL.City // = { getAll: function() { ... }, getById: function(id) { .. } }
XYZ.ViewModels.City // = { .... }
XYZ.Models.City // = { .... }
I sort of picked this up while working on a project with Knockout, and I really like it because there are no wild references to some objects declare in god-knows-where. Everything is in one place.
Now. This is ok for front-end, however, I'm currently developing a basic skeleton for a project which will start in a month, and it uses Node.
What I wanted was, instead of all the requires in .js files, I'd have a single object ('XYZ') which would hold all requires in one place. For example:
Instead of:
// route.js file
var cityModel = require('./models/city');
var cityService = require('./services/city');
app.get('/city', function() { ...........});
I would make an object:
XYZ.Models.City = require('./models/city');
XYZ.DAL.City = require('./services/city');
And use it like:
// route.js file
var cityModel = XYZ.Models.City;
var cityService = XYZ.DAL.City;
app.get('/city', function() { ...........});
I don't really have in-depth knowledge but all of the requires get cached and are served, if cached, from memory so re-requiring in multiple files isn't a problem.
Is this an ok workflow, or should I just stick to the standard procedure of referencing dependencies?
edit: I forgot to say, would this sort-of-factory pattern block the main thread, or delay the starting of the server? I just need to know what are the downsides... I don't mind the requires in code, but I just renamed a single folder and had to go through five files to change the paths... Which is really inconvenient.
I think that's a bad idea, because you are going to serve a ton of modules every single time, and you may not need them always. Your namespaced object will get quite monstrous. require will check the module cache first, so I'd use standard requires for each request / script that you need on the server.