wix-incubator / source-wizard

Intellij plugin to access sources of your `node_module` dependencies

Source Wizard

Introduction

Source Wizard is a plugin which helps you to access sources of your node_module dependencies

• It allows you to cache sources of npm modules in your local directory with the ability to navigate to the sources when a file from node_modules is opened
• Attaches source cache directory to project file tree view where you can explore the code of dependencies you use

Usage

Main use cases

When file from node_modules directory is opened, popup appears with the selection either to download sources from git repository or to create symlink in source cache directory if you already have the files on your computer.

If you press Download sources, needed sources are downloaded to your local cache from git repository and source file of a file opened in node_modules is displayed.

If you press Attach sources directory you will be prompted to select source directory on your computer. After the selection symlink in source cache directory is created and source file of a file opened in node_modules is displayed.

When file from node_modules directory is opened, and you already have sources directory for it in your cache, you will get a popup asking if you want to open source file. After pressing Open sources source file of a file opened in node_modules is displayed.

Source cache directory is accessible in file tree view under External Libraries tab, where you can freely explore source code of dependencies you use:

Plugin refreshes source cache directory by performing git pull in the background everytime you open source file, therefore cache is always up-to-date with the state of git repositories.

Sources are downloaded as the latest code in the repository, because of that they might differ from the code in published npm module, if you are not using the latest dependency version

Plugin uses SSH connection for git so please be sure you have correct SSH key set up if you want to access sources of private repositories.

Be aware that npm modules sources are resolved from repository.json field in its package json file:

 "repository": {
    "url": "https://github.com/repository"
  }

Plugin will not be able to download sources for modules not containing repository info in their package json files.

DefinitelyTyped support

Some npm modules are just type definitions without actual source code, for example DefinitelyTyped is a popular repository providing npm modules with type definitions of common libraries. Such modules have url linking to DefinitelyTyped repository instead of a repository with library sources in their package.json file, however this plugin handles such cases, resolves and downloads actual implementation of the module.