jspm is primarily a browser package manager, but there are massive benefits to enabling workflows that allow the same JavaScript code to run in both the browser and Node. As such, jspm also enables some basic usage on the server as well.
It is advisable not to use jspm for arbitrary server applications currently as there are two major issues with Node module npm support that are limiting use of jspm in Node:
- Browserify transforms support (jspm/npm#10)
- Packages with a
browserfield will always use that browser mapping even in Node (jspm/npm#32), pending conditional loading support in SystemJS.
jspm run allows the immediate execution of any module from the command-line:
jspm install fs
echo "import fs from 'fs';\
console.log(fs.readFileSync('package.json')+'');" > test.js
jspm run test
Just like jspm run, the jspm API provides an import function with the same functionality.
All Node core modules are available in the jspm registry and can be installed by their names.
This includes: assert, buffer, child_process, cluster, console, constants, crypto, dgram, dns, domain, events, fs, http, https, net, os, path, process, punycode, querystring, readline, repl, stream, string_decoder, timers, tls, tty, url, util, vm, zlib.
When running in Node, they use their native implementations, and when running the browser, the Browserify core shims are used instead.