javascript - How do you share constants in NodeJS modules?

Question

Currently I'm doing this:

foo.js

const FOO = 5;

module.exports = {
    FOO: FOO
};

And using it in bar.js:

var foo = require('foo');
foo.FOO; // 5

Is there a better way to do this? It feels awkward to declare the constant in the exports object.

Answer 1

In my opinion, utilizing Object.freeze allows for a DRYer and more declarative style. My preferred pattern is:

./lib/constants.js

module.exports = Object.freeze({
    MY_CONSTANT: 'some value',
    ANOTHER_CONSTANT: 'another value'
});

./lib/some-module.js

var constants = require('./constants');

console.log(constants.MY_CONSTANT); // 'some value'

constants.MY_CONSTANT = 'some other value';

console.log(constants.MY_CONSTANT); // 'some value'

Outdated Performance Warning

The following issue was fixed in v8 in Jan 2014 and is no longer relevant to most developers:

Be aware that both setting writable to false and using Object.freeze have a massive performance penalty in v8 - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/v8/issues/detail?id=1858 and http://jsperf.com/performance-frozen-object