Description
For front-end developers who crave maintainable assets, Jam is a package manager for JavaScript. Unlike other repositories, we put the browser first.
jam alternatives and similar libraries
Based on the "Package Managers" category.
Alternatively, view jam alternatives based on common mentions on social networks and blogs.
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jspm
DISCONTINUED. JSPM is an open source project for working with dependency management via import maps in browsers. -
Duo
DISCONTINUED. Next-generation package manager that blends the best ideas from Component, Browserify and Go to make organizing and writing front-end code quick and painless. -
corepack
Zero-runtime-dependency package acting as bridge between Node projects and their package managers -
volo
Create front end projects from templates, add dependencies, and automate the resulting projects
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README
*NOTE: this project is no longer active and not recommended for use. It is left here for reference. *
Jam was created at a time before Bower and provided a (still to this day) very nice installation workflow which meant you could 'jam install jquery', then immediately 'require("jquery")' in your application. No manual bundling or build step (e.g. browserify, webpack) required. This was thanks in large part to the power and flexibility of the AMD format.
Since it's creation, NPM has set it's sights more firmly on the browser space, and the popularity of the AMD module format is waning. Jam never really got enough traction to compete. Thanks to everone that helped out and gave it a try.
If you want to try hosting your own Jam repository, see the repositories section below. The public Jam repository is now retired.
Jam
For front-end developers who crave maintainable assets, Jam is a package manager for JavaScript. Unlike other repositories, we put the browser first.
Manage dependencies - Using a stack of script tags isn't the most maintainable way of managing dependencies, with Jam packages and loaders like RequireJS you get automatic dependency resolution.
Fast and modular - Achieve faster load times with asynchronous loading and the ability to optimize downloads. JavaScript modules and packages provide properly namespaced and more modular code.
Use with existing stack - Jam manages only your front-end assets, the rest of your app can be written in your favourite language or framework. Node.js tools can use the repository directly with the Jam API.
Custom builds - No more configuring custom builds of popular libraries. Now, every build can be optimized automatically depending on the parts you use, and additional components can always be loaded later.
Focus on size - Installing multiple versions works great on the server, but client-side we don't want five versions of jQuery! Jam can use powerful dependency resolution to find a working set of packages using only a single version of each.
100% browser - Every package you see here will work in the browser and play nicely with module loaders like RequireJS. We're not hijacking an existing repository, we're creating a 100% browser-focused community!
Example usage
$ jam install jquery
<script src="jam/require.js"></script>
<script>
require(['jquery'], function ($) {
...
});
</script>
Browser packages in package.json
You can also define your browser dependencies in a project-level package.json file. If you use Node.js, this format will already familiar to you, and the Jam dependencies can live alongside your NPM dependencies. It's also possible to define custom install paths and baseUrls, as well as hand in any requirejs configuration here:
{
"name": "my-project",
"version": "0.0.1",
"description": "My example project",
"jam": {
"baseUrl": "public",
"packageDir": "public/vendor",
"dependencies": {
"jquery": "1.7.x",
"underscore": null
},
"config": {
"paths": {
"templates": "public/templates"
}
}
}
}
Installation
# npm install -g jamjs
Requires node.js
Settings
You can customize Jam by creating a .jamrc
file in your home directory.
.jamrc
repositories
An array with Jam repositiories. Jam uses http://jamjs.org/repository
by
default, but it's possible to create a local, e.g. corporate, repository.
exports.repositories = [
"http://mycorporation.com:5984/repository/",
"http://jamjs.org/repository"
];
Repositories are in preference-order, so packages from repositories earlier in the list will be preferred over packages in repositories later in the list. However, when no package version is specified, the highest version number will be installed (even if that's not from the earliest repository).
You can add custom search URLs to repositories too:
exports.repositories = [
{
url: "http://mycorporation.com:5984/repository/",
search: "http://db.com:5984/_fti/key/_design/search/something"
},
"http://jamjs.org/repository"
];
If your local repository doesn't implement full text search (e.g. you don't want
to install couchdb lucene), you can disable searching functionality for that repository, otherwise
jam search
would report an error:
exports.repositories = [
{
url: "http://mycorporation.com:5984/repository/",
search: false
},
"http://jamjs.org/repository"
];
See the section below on running your own repository.
package_dir
Sets the default package installation directory (normally uses ./jam
). This
is best customized in your project-level package.json file, to ensure other
developers also install to the correct location.
exports.package_dir = 'libs';
Running the tests
Jam includes two test suites, unit tests (in test/unit
) and integration
tests (in test/integration
). The unit tests are easy to run by running the
test/unit.sh
script, or test\unit.bat
on Windows. The integration tests
first require you to set up a CouchDB instance to test against (you can get
a free account at IrisCouch if you don't want to install
CouchDB). You then need to set the JAM_TEST_DB environment variable to
point to a CouchDB database URL for testing:
Linux
export JAM_TEST_DB=http://user:password@localhost:5984/jamtest
Windows
set JAM_TEST_DB=http://user:password@localhost:5984/jamtest
Warning: All data in the test database will be deleted!
You can then run the integration tests using test/integration.sh
or
test\integration.bat
. To run BOTH the unit and integration tests use
test/all.sh
or test\all.bat
.
Running your own private repository or mirror
- Install couchdb
Mac OS X:
1. Install [Homebrew](http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/).
2.
brew install couchdb
Ubuntu:
apt-get install couchdb
- Configure your database
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5984/_replicate -d '{
"source":"http://jamjs.org/repository",
"target":"http://localhost:5984/repository",
"continuous":true,
"doc_ids":["_design/jam-packages"]
}' -H "Content-Type: application/json"
To create a mirror:
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5984/_replicate -d '{
"source":"http://jamjs.org/repository",
"target":"repository",
"continuous":true,
"create_target":true
}' -H "Content-Type: application/json"
To create an empty, private repository:
curl -X PUT http://127.0.0.1:5984/repository
- Edit your
.jamrc
file to use your new repository:
exports.repositories = [
{
url: "http://localhost:5984/repository",
search: false
},
"http://jamjs.org/repository"
];
Adding search
- Install couchdb-lucene
- Restart couchdb.
- Edit your
.jamrc
file to allow searching on your repository:
exports.repositories = [
{
url: "http://localhost:5984/repository",
search: "http://localhost:5984/_fti/local/repository/_design/jam-packages/packages/"
},
"http://jamjs.org/repository"
];
Publishing packages to your private repository
jam publish --repository http://localhost:5984/repository
More documentation
To learn how to create and publish packages etc, and for more info on using packages, consult the Jam documentation website.