YUI in NodeJS

The YUI system needs to be built in order for it to work inside of NodeJS properly. We have created a script to do this for you so you can create an npm packge that’s installable and usable locally.

We have also created a new seed file for YUI inside of node (yui-nodejs) that loads all of the YUI modules needed to make YUI run on node properly.

Installation

To create the package you need shifter, node and npm installed.

cd yui3/src/yui
make npm
//or without make
shifter --config build-npm.json

By default this will create the package here:

../../build-npm/
/path/to/yui3/build-npm/

Then you can use npm to install this package like this:

mkdir yui_test
cd yui_test
npm i /path/to/yui3/build-npm/

Now npm ls will show that the package is installed locally in this directory.

Usage

Once the yui package has been installed, you can still access it like you used to:

var YUI = require('yui').YUI;

YUI().use('oop', function(Y) {
    console.log('OOP?', (Y.rbind) ? true : false); //true
});

We have also added support for YUI “requiring” in a more “CommonJS” manner:

var Y = require('yui/base-base');
console.log('Base?', (Y.Base) ? true : false); //true

var Y = require('yui/yql');
console.log('YQL?', (Y.YQL) ? true : false); //true

When you require a YUI module more than once in a process, the YUI instance used under the hood is shared.

var Y = require('yui/yql');
console.log('YQL #1?', (Y.YQL) ? true : false); //true
console.log('Base #1?', (Y.Base) ? true : false); //false

var Y = require('yui/base-base');
console.log('YQL #2?', (Y.YQL) ? true : false); //true
console.log('Base #2?', (Y.Base) ? true : false); //true

You can also do one YUI use on require and load several modules at once:

var Y = require('yui').use('yql', 'oop', 'base-base');

console.log('OOP?', (Y.rbind) ? true : false); //true
console.log('YQL?', (Y.YQL) ? true : false); //true
console.log('Base?', (Y.Base) ? true : false); //true

Sync vs Async

Doing a require, like above, where you select your modules inside the require will make that YUI instance sync by default:

//This will be sync
var Y = require('yui').use('yql', 'oop', 'base-base');

Using YUI like you do in the browser will make YUI async:

var YUI = require('yui').YUI;
//This will be async
YUI().use('oop', function(Y) {
    console.log('OOP?', (Y.rbind) ? true : false); //true
});

You can force a sync use by setting the useSync config option in they YUI constructor:

var YUI = require('yui').YUI;
//This is sync
var Y = YUI({ useSync: true }).use('oop');
console.log('OOP?', (Y.rbind) ? true : false); //true