Class definitions in static getter methods

Question

[Node.js / CommonJS]

I'm creating a single GitHub repo for my tool which has a Core, Control, Server, and Client library. It's unlikely that all of them will be used at the same time.

I'd like my fellow coworkers to require one entry point for all four libraries. So I made this questionable implementation: exporting the Core class with static properties pointing to the other classes.

Tool.js

class Core
{
    static get Control(){return require("./control")};
    static get Server(){return require("./server")};
    static get Client(){return require("./client")};
    constructor(opts)
    {
    }
}
module.exports = Core;
// module.exports = {Core, Control, Server, Client};

index.js

//Create core instance
const Tool = require("Tool");
const tool = new Tool();

//Create server instance
const ToolServer = require("Tool").Server;

//etc
const ToolClient = require("Tool").Client;

Is this a bad pattern? I'd RTFM in regards to importing classes from static properties, but I'm not sure where to find resources that dives deep into the inner workings of JavaScript/Node.js/CommonJS.

Answer 1

As it seems to me this works as a namespace, currently ES6 modules allow for something similar with the export and import keywords:

Core.js

import * as Control from './control';
import * as Server from './server';

export {Control, Server}

I've used that pattern in many projects and it always helps in keeping code modular.

The only thing I would change in your require implementation you could use an object instead of a class, that way is more readable and there are no functions involved, something like:

Core.js

const Control = require('./control');
const Server = require('./server');

module.exports = {Controle, Server};

// Another alternative would be

module.exports.Control = require('./control');
module.exports.Server = require('./server');

If you still want to do a lazy require as I assume for having functions, this could be an alternative:

module.exports = {
  Control = () => require('./control'),
  Server = () => require('./server')
}