#fileDependencies support for package.json

This module extends package.json with an additional property: fileDependencies.

With fileDependencies it is possible to express project dependencies based on files located somewhere else in the filesystem or avalaible somewhere on the internet.

If a node projects requires some additional libraries or binaries that do not come from NPM – maybe they are developed in other languages it is possible to fetch them as file dependencies.

#Example

{
  "name": "file-dependencies",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "author": "Massimiliano Marcon <[email protected]> (http://marcon.me)",
  "license": "MIT",
  "dependencies": {
    "q": "^1.1.2",
    "request": "^2.53.0",
    "file-dependencies": "1.0.0"
  },
  "fileDependencies": {
    "selenium-server-standalone.jar": "http://selenium-release.storage.googleapis.com/2.43/selenium-server-standalone-2.43.1.jar",
  }
}

With this package.json NPM will fetch the file-dependencies module, and then selenium-server-standalone-2.43.1.jar will be downloaded from the Selenium website and copied in node_modules/file_dependencies. The downloaded file will be named selenium-server-standalone.jar.

From the application it will be possible to use child process to instantiate the selenium server.

#Platform/Architecture specific binaries

It is possible to describe file dependencies with an object format in order to target specific platforms and architectures.

"fileDependencies": {
  "selenium-server-standalone.jar": {
    "darwin": "http://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/2.14/chromedriver_mac32.zip",
    "linux": {
        "ia32": "http://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/2.14/chromedriver_linux32.zip",
        "x64": "http://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/2.14/chromedriver_linux64.zip"
    },
    "win32": "http://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/2.14/chromedriver_win32.zip"
  }
}

#TODO

• Automatic archive decompression (zip, tar.gz)