Question

I have an app.js node application. As this file is starting to grow, I would like to move some part of the code in some other files that I would “require” or “include” in the app.js file.

I’m trying things like:

// Declare application
var app = require('express').createServer();

// Declare usefull stuff for DB purposes
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var Schema = mongoose.Schema;
var ObjectId = Schema.ObjectId;

// THE FOLLOWING REQUIRE DOES NOT WORK
require('./models/car.js');

in car.js:

// Define Car model
CarSchema = new Schema({
  brand        : String,
  type : String
});
mongoose.model('Car', CarSchema);

I got the error:

ReferenceError: Schema is not defined

I’m just looking to have the content of car.js loaded (instead of having everything in the same app.js file) Is there a particuliar way to do this in node.js ?

Answer 1

To place an emphasis on what everyone else has been saying var foo in top level does not create a global variable. If you want a global variable then write global.foo. but we all know globals are evil.

If you are someone who uses globals like that in a node.js project I was on I would refactor them away for as there are just so few use cases for this (There are a few exceptions but this isn’t one).

// Declare application
var app = require('express').createServer();

// Declare usefull stuff for DB purposes
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var Schema = mongoose.Schema;
var ObjectId = Schema.ObjectId;

require('./models/car.js').make(Schema, mongoose);

in car.js

function make(Schema, mongoose) {
    // Define Car model
    CarSchema = new Schema({
      brand        : String,
      type : String
    });
    mongoose.model('Car', CarSchema);
}

module.exports.make = make;