Question: can i override a node's prefix via criteria ?

[CaptainQuirk]

I would like to change the prefix or the href for specific nodes

Summary

• I'm perfectly fine with how things work for code under version control and can add the URL to my gitlab instance in the configuration file under the prefix option BUT I would like to be able to link to node packages when the dependency type is npm

Environment

• Version used: 14.1.1
• Node version: 18.17.0
• Operating System and version: alpine node
• Link to your project:

[sverweij]

Hi @CaptainQuirk thanks for this suggestion. It's not possible (yet), but it makes a lot of sense. Likewise it would probably make more sense to link nodes for node core modules to the node.js documentation.

I've made a (quick, very dirty, very non-configurable, not-yet-publishable) hack to gauge the possibilities - example output for the dot reporter (the hack works in other reporters as well) run against virtual-code-owners:

https://sverweij.github.io/examples/dependency-cruiser/links-to-different-targets.html

• links npm (regular, dev, optional, peer, unknown) modules to https://www.npmjs.com/package/${packageName}
• links node core modules to ~ https://nodejs.org/api/${pModule.source}.html

Questions

-> Would this work for you?
-> Would the hard coded URL prefixes for these be sufficient or would it need to be configurable?

[CaptainQuirk]

Hi !

Well, that's exactly what I had in mind !

There may be a need for dynamic URL prefixes though: for example, I'm wondering how it would work with custom npm package registries. Gitlab has them.
For those particular packages, what would you link to ? Probably the source code. But, maybe the source code of such a dependency is hosted on a different git service than the main project.
What do you think ?

[CaptainQuirk]

The hover feature on this example is great by the way !

[sverweij]

hmm yeah - configurable makes sense for alternative registries indeed (private or not). + they'll typically be mixed with the public packages from e.g. npmjs.

I thought to use fields from package.json (e.g. repository, homepage) but they're too inconsistent. they're not mandatory & nothing stops authors from filling out https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ. Or worse.

I'll ponder some solutions to facilitate a split, but I guess as a first step having separate urls for core modules & npm modules would already be an improvement.

The hover feature on this example is great by the way !

Merci :-) It's the result of a little postprocessing on the generated svg - the script to do that is packaged with dependency-cruiser - see doc/cli.md#depcruise-wrap-stream-in-html if you also want to use it.

[CaptainQuirk]

I agree with the first step approach ! Having links to the npm registry and the built-in node js module is sufficient for my use cases so far !

[sverweij]

@CaptainQuirk the (slightly cleaned up version) of the feature that has separate urls for core & npm modules has been shipped as part [email protected].

[CaptainQuirk]

👍