Conditional / Fallback alias?

[easingthemes]

Is it possible to configure fallback alias?

Eg.

app
  - views
    - people
      index.js
      _avatar.js
      person.js //require this if exist
  - models
    person.js // require fallback if there is no such module in original path


// _avatar.js
  var person = require('./person.js')

[joeybaker]

Remapify does not support this, and I think it's a bit out of scope. I don't know of another transform/plugin that does this either :(

FWIW, I know this seems like a good idea, but it's probably not a good path to go down. It's likely to lead to unpredictable and therefore buggy behavior.

[gja]

Shucks, this seems pretty useful to have.

[joeybaker]

The problem with this idea is that it becomes really hard to predict what file you're actually loading.

[gja]

While that is true, it's still a choice that is resolved at asset compile time. So assuming one has some sort of staging environment available, it's not going to be a surprise at runtime.

I guess it comes down to what sort of patterns your team is comfortable with. Providing some sort of 'classpath', where each directory is searched in sequence for a particular file, is a pattern that all developers have become familiar with

[gja]

The API i would propose for this would be to accept CWD as an array of directories, and you match the JS against the first in the list.

[joeybaker]

That is an elegant API … and far be it from me to prevent a feature that now two people have asked for. PR would be welcome!