Is it possible to import code in Node.js from HTTP(S) URLs just like in the browser or in Deno? After all, Node.js has had stable support for ECMAScri

Dynamic import with HTTP URLs in Node.js – 2021-07-21

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2021-07-21 12:30:08

Is it possible to import code in Node.js from HTTP(S) URLs just like in the browser or in Deno? After all, Node.js has had stable support for ECMAScript modules since version 14, released in April 2020. So what happens if we just write something like import('https://cdn.skypack.dev/uuid')?

Unfortunately it's neither possible import code from HTTP URLs statically nor dynamically because the URL scheme is not supported.

An experimental feature of Node.js are custom loaders. A loader is basically a set of "hook" functions to resolve and load source code. There is even an example of an HTTP loader.

A downside to this approach is that a loader's influence is quite limited. For instance, the execution context of the downloaded code cannot be modified. The team working on loaders is still modifying their API, so this could still be subject to change.

Another Node.js API that offers more low-level control is vm. It enables the execution of raw JavaScript code within the V8 virtual machine.