Shimmed Dependencies

Usage

Some modules are shimmed (see Motivation below), and should not be installed as dependencies of a Zimlet. These include:

preact
preact-router
preact-redux
react-apollo

Other psuedo-modules are provided by zm-x-web under the @zimbra-client namespace. This namespace includes many exports from the main application; such as components, utility functions, decorators, GraphQL queries, and constants. This gives all Zimlets a safe subset of the code used in developing zm-x-web. These psuedo-modules include:

@zimbra-client/graphql     // Represents the `zm-x-web/src/graphql` folder
@zimbra-client/enhancers   // Represents the `zm-x-web/src/enhancers` folder
@zimbra-client/constants   // Represents the `zm-x-web/src/constants` folder

To use shims in a Zimlet, import them as if they are regular modules.

Shims are a work in progress. If you are a developer and you want to use a piece of code from zm-x-web in a Zimlet, make a pull request to add more shims to the Zimlet Manager

Adding More Shims

1. Add the shim module to zm-x-web::src/lib/zimlet-manager/shims.js.
2. Add the shimmed module name and named imports to the build-shims.js script.
3. (Optional) If not already included in the SHIMMED_MODULES list, add the module name to src/shims/index.js in the SHIMMED_MODULES list.
4. Run the build and make sure it works in a Zimlet.

Motivation

zimlet-cli evaluates Zimlets inside a sand boxed environment. This environment has a number of useful dependencies injected into it, these are referred to as shims. By injecting dependencies, Zimlets are able to reuse modules bundled into zm-x-web without duplicating code.

Consider the preact module that exists in the main application (zm-x-web); and that preact will also be used by the majority of Zimlets. Bundling a unique copy of preact with every Zimlet will create a large amount of code duplication. Instead, there will be one copy of preact and it is injected into the environments for a Zimlet at runtime.