To publish Node-API version of a package alongside a non-Node-API version

The following steps are illustrated using the package iotivity-node:

  • First, publish the non-Node-API version:
    • Update the version in package.json. For iotivity-node, the version becomes 1.2.0-2.
    • Go through the release checklist (ensure tests/demos/docs are OK)
    • npm publish
  • Then, publish the Node-API version:
    • Update the version in package.json. In the case of iotivity-node, the version becomes 1.2.0-3. For versioning, we recommend following the pre-release version scheme as described by semver.org e.g. 1.2.0-napi.
    • Go through the release checklist (ensure tests/demos/docs are OK)
    • npm publish --tag n-api

In this example, tagging the release with n-api has ensured that, although version 1.2.0-3 is later than the non-Node-API published version (1.2.0-2), it will not be installed if someone chooses to install iotivity-node by simply running npm install iotivity-node. This will install the non-Node-API version by default. The user will have to run npm install iotivity-node@n-api to receive the Node-API version. For more information on using tags with npm check out "Using dist-tags".

To introduce a dependency on a Node-API version of a package

To add the Node-API version of iotivity-node as a dependency, the package.json will look like this:

"dependencies": {
  "iotivity-node": "n-api"
}
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As explained in "Using dist-tags", unlike regular versions, tagged versions cannot be addressed by version ranges such as "^2.0.0" inside package.json. The reason for this is that the tag refers to exactly one version. So, if the package maintainer chooses to tag a later version of the package using the same tag, npm update will receive the later version. This should be acceptable given the currently experimental nature of Node-API. To depend on an Node-API-enabled version other than the latest published, the package.json dependency will have to refer to the exact version like the following:

"dependencies": {
  "iotivity-node": "1.2.0-3"
}
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