In NPM THE GUIDE you will learn how to use npm to install packages and update them. Delve deeper into more command line commands to help speed up workflow and finally use npm in your scripts to utilise npm’s additional features.

1. NPM THE GUIDE
By Kameron Tanseli @kamerontanseli
1

2. Who is this book for?
This book accommodates for beginners however the ideal
reader is one who has a working knowledge of the
command line and JavaScript as well as Node.js installed.
Don’t be put off however if you do not have that much
experience as most of the examples in the book are not
that hard to follow.
2

3. Contents
1. Book cover
2. Who is this book for?
3. Contents
4. Npmjs.org description
5. Statistic of how many downloads
6. Installing npm
7. Chapter One
8. Pablo Picasso quote
9. How to install a package
10. How to globally install a package
11. How to uninstall a package
12. Creating package.json and saving packages to it
13. Structure of package.json
14. Install all listed packages
15. How to require packages
16. Chapter two
17. How to update packages
18. Choosing which version
19. Checking what to update
20. Chapter Three
21. Jquery.extend
22. Underscore
23. CoffeeScript
24. Colors
25. Chapter Four
26. Registering up
27. Using npm config ls
28. How to structure a custom
package
29. Publishing a package
30. The process of creating
31. Updating custom packages
32. Chapter Five
33. List of all npm commands
34. Useful npm commands - P1
35. Useful npm commands - P2
36. Npm explore
37. Chapter Five
38. Npm.load()
39. Npm.commands
40. Using packages with npm
41. Image of finished script
42. Chapter Seven
43. Statistics of npm
44. What you have learnt
45. Credits
3

4. “npm makes it easy for
JavaScript developers to share
and reuse code, and it makes it
easy to update the code that
you're sharing” - npmjs.org
4

5. 1,908,826,857
Total number of installs last month
at the time of writing this.
5

6. Installing and updating npm
Npm comes with the
installation of Node.js.
To update npm simple type
6

7. 1.
Using npm
● npm install
● --save
● require( );
7

8. “
Good artists copy; great
artists steal - Pablo
Picasso.
8

9. npm install
Here are 3 easy steps to installing a
package:
1. Go to npmjs.org,
2. Search for the package name you want, for
e.g: “underscore”.
3. Then simply type on the command line:
9

10. What if i need it installed
everywhere?
Add -g to then end of your npm
install to make the package globally
available!
10

11. npm uninstall
Just use npm uninstall just like npm
install to remove a package. To remove a
global package just add -g the end of
npm uninstall.
11

12. npm init
This command creates a file
called ‘package.json’ this
holds a list of all your
packages installed.
npm install --save
<p_name>
This parameter added to the
end of a npm install adds the
package name to the
package.json. You will need
to run npm init before using
--save.
npm init and --save
npm uninstall --save
<p_name>
This removes the package
from the ‘package.json’.
12

13. package.json
Where our
packages
are installed
What
version of
the package
do we need
13

14. Manually added packages to
package.json?
Just use npm install without
specifying a package name to install
all of them!
14

15. Where to use it?
Require is placed inside files
that are to be run by Node.js
and that “require” a package to
work. Require is strictly for
the server side code unless
you are using Browserify!
require( );
How to use it?
First we store our required
modules in a variable, then we call
the require function with the
name of our package in the
brackets.
15

16. 2.
Updating and checking
● npm update
● npm outdated
16

17. npm update
If you want to update
all the packages in
package.json simply
type npm update.
However you can also
just add a package
name to update a
single package.
For global packages
you just have to
reinstall the package
globally.
17

18. Stable
This is the safest
option as this
has no further
changes
Legacy
You might want
this if you need
to support older
libraries
Edge
This is the latest
version and the
most unstable as
it is new and still
being developed.
What kind of version of a package do you need?
18

19. npm outdated
Use npm outdated
to check whether any
packages need to be
updated.
19

20. 3.
Libraries to
check out
● jQuery.extend
● Underscore
● CoffeeScript
● Colors
20

21. jQuery.extend
Although you may not be able to select DOM elements, jQuery’s useful $.
extend() method can easily help to simplify inheritance on the server side.
npm install jquery.extend
Extending objects for
inheritance.
It only offers one
method.
21

22. Underscore
The npm package explains this perfectly.
Underscore.js is a utility-belt library for JavaScript that provides support
for the usual functional suspects (each, map, reduce, filter...) without
extending any core JavaScript objects.
npm install underscore Offers a full library of
useful functions.
Do you really need all
of them?
22

23. CoffeeScript
CoffeeScript is a language that compiles into JavaScript, it’s syntax
follows that of a mix of Ruby and Python. CoffeeScript is an attempt to
expose the good parts of JavaScript in a simple way.
Example:
npm install coffee-script
More readable and
cleaner than JS.
Debugging is a pain.
23

24. Colors
Add coloured text to your Node.js console.
npm install colors
YOU GET COLOURS!
Nothing colours rule.
24

25. 4.
Publishing your own package
● npm adduser
● npm publish
● npm unpublish
25

26. npm adduser
To add a package we need to create an account. We can
do this easily with npm adduser.
You should see the fields outputted when ran:
■ Username
■ email
■ password
Fill out the fields and continue, you should now be
registered.
26

27. use npm config ls to check
whether your credentials are
saved on your system.
27

28. Simple package - Default file name “index.js”
Requiring it after publishing
28

29. Publishing
npm init
Run npm init to create a
package.json file, remember
to add any dependencies you
installed as you made the
package.
Publishing
After setting up the package.
json simply type npm publish
./ this will publish the
package in the current
directory to npmjs.org.
29

30. npm adduser npm init npm publish
The process is simple
30

31. Updating the package
Version
npm will reject an update
with the same version code as
the published package, so
remember to change the
version code.
npm publish again
As your credentials are saved
on your system you do not
need to relogin, so to publish
the update simply run the
npm publish command.
31

32. 5.
Extra npm commands
● npm view
● npm root
● npm search
● npm help-search
● ...
32

33. List of all npm commands
● access
● adduser
● bin
● bugs
● build
● bundle
● cache
● completion
● config
● dedupe
● deprecate
● dist-tag
● docs
● edit
● explore
● help
● help-search
● init
● install
● link
● logout
● ls
● npm
● outdated
● owner
● pack
● ping
● prefix
● prune
● publish
● rebuild
● repo
● restart
● rm
● root
● run-script
● search
● shrinkwrap
● star
● stars
● start
● stop
● tag
● test
● uninstall
● unpublish
● update
● version
● view
● whoami
Dont panic you don’t need to use around 70%!
33

34. Helpful npm commands
npm view
This command
shows data about
a package and
prints it to the
console.
npm search
Search npm to
check whether a
package exists.
npm root
Displays the path
in the directory to
the node_modules
folder.
● npm view <p_name>
● npm search <p_name>
● npm root
34

35. Helpful npm commands - part 2
npm edit
This opens the
selected package
in your default
editor, after saving
npm rebuilds the
package.
npm docs
This command
tries to guess at
the likely location
of a package's
documentation
URL, and then tries
to open it in the
browser.
npm ls
Prints out all the
packages installed
as well as their
dependencies in a
tree like structure.
● npm edit <p_name>
● npm docs
● npm ls
35

36. npm explore <p_name>
This command will open a subdirectory in
the command line to the package in the
node_modules folder. Super useful!
36

37. 6.
Programming with npm
● npm.commands
● npm.load
37

38. Setting up our script
We will call our file “test.js”, then require
the “npm” module.
First we must load our environment, we can
do this via npm.load(). The method takes 2
parameters a
configuration object
and a callback when
npm is ready.
38

39. Calling commands
Inside npm.load’s callback we can use npm.
commands to execute some command line
methods. For example we will use the npm
ls method to list out all our packages.
39

40. Using other packages in conjunction
We will use the prompt package to allow user input. To install it run npm install prompt, then
require it in our test.js.
We use prompt.start() to start prompting, then we run prompt.get() and pass in an array with our
field names (the use of “_” will result in a space in the command line) and a callback with the
parameters err and result.
Our results are stored in the result object, to access them use the same name in your array as a
property. For e.g: [“package_name”] will equal results.package_name .Then we substitute our field
(“package_name”) into npm.commands.explore.
Full size image next page.
40

41. test.js with the prompt package integrated (top), program running in cmd (bottom).
41

42. 7.
END
● Credits
42

43. 170, 699
That’s a lot of packages
100%
Guaranteed to speed up your workflow
Around 30k installs a day
And a lot of updates
43

44. Let’s review what you learnt
Install and
uninstall
You learnt how to use npm install,
npm uninstall, the --save and -g param
and the structure of package.json.
Updating and
checking
You learnt how to update packages
locally and globally as well as how to
update all packages. You also learnt
how to check if updates are needed
using npm outdated.
Some libraries
You learnt about the positives and
negatives of using certain packages
and how to install them.
Publishing your
own package
You learnt how to write a basic
package and how to upload it to the
npm registry. You also learnt how to
update the package and what
requirements must be met before
updating.
Extra npm
commands
You learnt some useful npm
commands to help speed up your
workflow.
Programming
with npm
You learnt how to require npm and
use it in an example project to explore
files.
44

45. Credits
Special thanks to all the people who made and released
these awesome resources for free:
■ Design by SlidesCarnival
45

46. Blurb
Learn how to use npm to install packages and
update them. Delve deeper into more
command line commands to help speed up
workflow and finally use npm in your scripts
to utilise npm’s additional features.
46