External Dependencies

On this page

Add an External Package

Add Packages by Name and Version
Upload a Dependency Directory
Import a Package in a Function
Import a Full Module
Import a Module Subfolder

Atlas Device Sync, Atlas Edge Server, Data API, and HTTPS Endpoints are deprecated. Refer to the deprecation page for details.

An external dependency is a library that includes code that you can't or don't want to implement yourself. For example, you might use an official library for an external service or a custom implementation of a data structure or algorithm.

Atlas App Services automatically transpiles dependencies and also supports most built-in Node.js modules.

Note

Create Your Own Modules

Though most npm modules are written by third parties, you can also create and publish your own npm modules to house logic specific to your application. You can make your modules available to the Node.js community or reserve them for private use. For more information, check out npm's guide on Contributing packages to the registry.

Add an External Package

To import and use an external dependency, you first need to add the dependency to your application. You can either add packages by name or upload a directory of dependencies.

Important

Override Existing Dependencies

You can only use one method at a time to specify the external packages your app can use. The most recent method that you used to specify dependencies is the source of truth and overrides previous specifications.

For example, a package added by name through the UI overrides any copies of the same package that you've added previously, including those in an uploaded dependency directory.

Add Packages by Name and Version

You can add packages from the npm registry to your app by name. You can either add a specific version or use the latest version.

Navigate to Dependencies in the UI

Select Functions from the left navigation menu.
Select the Dependencies tab.
Click the Add Dependency button.

Add Dependency Information

In the Add Dependency modal window that pops up from your actions in the previous step, include the following information:

Field	Description
Define a Package Name	The name of the npm package.
Package Version	Optional. Specific version of the dependency to use. By default, App Services uses the latest version available.

Click the Add button to start adding the package.

You can track the status of adding the dependency in the progress tracker at the bottom of the window. The progress tracker provides a message letting you know if the package succeeded or failed. Failure messages contain additional information about why the package could not be added.

If drafts are enabled, you will also need to click Review & Deploy to apply these changes.

Check Operation Success

If App Services successfully adds the dependency, you'll see it on the list of dependencies in the Dependencies tab.

Pull your App

Pull your App to your device with the command:

appservices pull

Create a package.json File with Dependencies

Create a package.json in the /functions directory of your App. You can do this by copying in an existing package.json file or running npm init and following the prompts.
Add dependencies by running npm install <dependency-name>.

Push the Dependencies to App Services

Go to the root directory of your App:
```
cd path/to/MyRealmApp
```
Push the latest version of your app with all the dependencies in the package.json:
```
appservices push --include-package-json
```
Follow the CLI prompts to confirm that you want to include the dependencies in your operation. The CLI will start adding the dependencies to your App.

Check Operation Success

Once it finishes adding the dependencies, the CLI tells you if all packages were successfully added.

If anything fails during the installation, none of the dependencies are installed. Remove the failing dependencies from the package.json file and try again.

Enable Github Automatic Deployment

Enable Github Automatic Deployments so you can redeploy your App whenever you push configuration updates to a specified branch on Github.

Pull your App

Pull your App to your device with the command:

appservices pull

Create a package.json File with Dependencies

Create a package.json in the /functions directory of your App. You can do this by copying in an existing package.json file or running npm init and following the prompts.
Add dependencies by running npm install <dependency-name>.

Push the Dependencies to Github

Git Push the latest version of your app with all the dependencies in the package.json to Github with a command such as:

git push origin main

Check Operation Success

The App Services GitHub app automatically deploys your updated app configuration after you push the commit. You can check the status of the deployment and confirm that all packages were successfully added from the Deployment screen of the App Services UI.

If anything fails during deployment, none of the dependencies are installed. Remove the failing dependencies from the package.json file and try again.

Upload a Dependency Directory

You can upload a zipped node_modules directory of packages to your app. Zipped dependency directories may not exceed 15MB.

Locally Install External Dependencies

To upload external dependencies, you first need a local node_modules folder containing at least one Node.js package. You can use the following code snippet to install a dependency locally you would like to upload:

npm install <package name>

If the node_modules folder does not already exist, this command automatically creates it.

Note

Alternative Methods of Installation

You can also configure a package.json and run the npm install command to install all packages (and their dependencies) listed in your package.json.

To learn more about npm and node_modules, consult the npm documentation.

Create a Dependency Archive

Now that you've downloaded all of your npm modules, you need to package them up in an archive so you can upload them to App Services. Create an archive containing the node_modules folder:

tar -czf node_modules.tar.gz node_modules/

Note

Supported Archive Formats

App Services supports .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, and .zip archive formats.

Upload the Dependency Archive

Once you've created an archive containing your dependencies, you can upload your dependency archive using the App Services UI or the App Services CLI:

Select Functions from the left navigation menu.
Select the Dependencies tab.
Click the Upload button.
In the file picker, select the node_modules.tar.gz archive you just created and click Open. App Services automatically uploads the archive file, which may take several minutes depending on the speed of your internet connection and the size of your dependency archive.
Whether the operation succeeded or failed, App Services displays a banner indicating the success or failure of the operation. If successful, the Dependencies tab displays a list of the dependencies that you included in your dependency archive. If drafts are enabled, you will also need to click Review & Deploy to apply these changes. If drafts are disabled, the change will take effect within 5 to 60 seconds depending on the size of your dependency archive.

Add the node_modules archive to your /functions directory:
```
mv node_modules.tar.gz ./myapp/functions
```
Push your application with the --include-node-modules option:
```
appservices push --include-node-modules
```

Import a Package in a Function

You can import built-in modules and external packages that you've added to your app and then use them in your functions. To import a package, call require() with the package name from within the function body.

Important

Where Do I Import Modules?

Node.js projects commonly place require() calls in the global scope of each file, but App Services does not support this pattern. You must place App Services require() calls within a function scope.

Import a Full Module

exports = () => {
   const R = require("ramda");
   return R.map(x => x*2, [1,2,3]);
}

Import a Module Subfolder

exports = function(arg){
   const cloneDeep = require("lodash/cloneDeep");
   var original = { name: "Deep" };
   var copy = cloneDeep(original);
   copy.name = "John";
   console.log(`original: ${original.name}`);
   console.log(`copy: ${copy.name}`);
   return (original != copy);
};

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