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Gets JavaScript
Filed under application tools › utilitiesShow Allsteal
In addition to a collection of plugins, StealJS is comprised of two main components:
steal
: an extensible, universal module loader.steal-tools
: utilities for building, transforming, and exporting module formats.
This is the
steal
repository. For thetools
, see https://github.com/stealjs/steal-tools.Module Loading with
steal
steal
is unique because it can load JavaScript modules defined in ES6, AMD, and CommonJS formats (unlike most other module loaders, which only support one of these formats at a time).In JavaScript, the word "modules" refers to small units of independent, reusable code. They are the foundation of many JavaScript design patterns, and can look like this in ES6:
export function hello() { console.log('hello'); } export function goodbye() { console.log('goodbye'); }
Or like this in AMD:
define([], function() { return { hello: function() { console.log('hello'); }, goodbye: function() { console.log('goodbye'); } }; });
Or like this CommonJS:
function hello() { console.log('hello'); } function goodbye() { console.log('goodbye'); } module.exports = { hello: hello, goodbye: goodbye }
All of these formats are supported by
steal
, so you can mix and match modules in your project:// ES6 import { hello, goodbye } from "greetings"; // AMD define(["greetings"],function(greetings){ ... }); // CommonJS var hello = require('greetings').hello; var goodbye = require('greetings').goodbye;
Additionally, plugins make it possible to load ANY module type you might come up with, such as Less or CSS. Anyone can write a plugin for
steal
to extend it's core module-loading functionality.Extending
steal
with PluginsThe StealJS organization maintains popular plugins that extend and enhance the module-loading capabilities of
steal
(and, subsequently,steal-tools
) such as:For example, the Less plugin allows Less files to be loaded similarly to JavaScript modules:
// ES6 import "style.less"; // AMD define(["style.less"],function(){ ... }); // CommonJS require("style.less"); // steal steal("style.less")
Looking to create a plugin for another format? See Writing Plugins.
For more information on StealJS, visit StealJS.com.
Contributing
For information on contributing and developing, see the Contributing Guide on StealJS.com.