CommonJS

Use

CommonJS is a popular format used in Node.js, but has also caught on in the browser. People like CommonJS because it doesn't require a wrapper function. You might define a module like so:

var can = require("can");
var _ = require("underscore");
var myModule = require("some_module/some_module");

module.exports = can.Component.extend({

});

With CommonJS a single file will always define a single module. In includes 3 key objects: require, exports and module.

require is used to import modules as dependencies. In the above example, can is being imported using require.

exports is an object that can be used to attach properties to the exported module definition.

module is an object representing the module definition. You'll often use either exports or module. Usually module is used when you want to export a single value, like a function.