How to import other javascript module in PhantomJS or CasperJS

Question

I'm trying to build a functional test using CasperJS. caseperjs is run by a backend test suite using the following command:

PHANTOMJS_EXECUTABLE=../client/node_modules/phantomjs/bin/phantomjs  ../client/ext_modules/casperjs/bin/casperjs test ../client/test/functional/init.coffee

In init.coffee I want to import/include other module (file) which seats just next to it. How to do it?

The following doesn't works:

require("user")

All I want is to get a content from other file into init.coffee

Solution 1

As of 1.1, CasperJS relies on PhantomJS’ native require():
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/phantomjs/0-DYnNn_6Bs

Injecting dependencies

While injecting additional modules, CasperJS looks for path relative to cur directory (the place where we run a casperjs command) We can inject dependency using clientScripts option. However the injected dependencies can't use require "globally". They are injected immediately to every page loaded.

casper.options.clientScripts = ["path/relative/to/cur/dir"]

Also we can inject modules using commandline args:

casperjs test --includes=foo.js,bar.js path/to/the/test/file

Using require

To import user modules use:

require "./user-module.coffee"

Then in user modules you can also use require. Using require paths are resolved relative to the current file (where require is called).
If in user module you want to import casper libs, then you need to patch require, check: https://casperjs.readthedocs.org/en/latest/writing_modules.html

Solution 2

After trying a number of the other suggestions (each expected to work in the context of their corresponding environments), hit on this solution:

phantom.page.injectJs( 'script.js');

Solution 3

There's a section about that in the docs

var require = patchRequire(global.require);
require('./user');

In your case you should use global.require since you're using CoffeeScript.

Comments

[Robert Zaremba]

Doc says that patchRequire is used in order to allow requiring casper modules using their full name, eg. require('casper') in user modules.

[Alberto Zaccagni]

See the example after that. Maybe I misunderstood the docs, I didn't try it.

[Robert Zaremba]

Yes, I saw it. thanks for this! I'm preparing an answer for this problem.

[Anders Lindén]

Should it fail silently if the file is not existing?

[Mark Simon]

Soz, haven't tried that. Expecting it not to fail silently.