Before starting to use Node-API you need to assure you have the following prerequisites:
-
Node.JS see: Installing Node.js
-
Node.js native addon build tool
To use Node-API in a native module:
- Add a dependency on this package to
package.json
:
"dependencies": {
"node-addon-api": "*",
}
- Reference this package's include directory and gyp file in
binding.gyp
:
'include_dirs': ["<!(node -p \"require('node-addon-api').include_dir\")"],
- Decide whether the package will enable C++ exceptions in the Node-API wrapper.
The base ABI-stable C APIs do not throw or handle C++ exceptions, but the
Node-API C++ wrapper classes may optionally
integrate C++ and JavaScript exception-handling
.
To enable that capability, C++ exceptions must be enabled in
binding.gyp
:
'cflags!': [ '-fno-exceptions' ],
'cflags_cc!': [ '-fno-exceptions' ],
'xcode_settings': {
'GCC_ENABLE_CPP_EXCEPTIONS': 'YES',
'CLANG_CXX_LIBRARY': 'libc++',
'MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET': '10.7',
},
'msvs_settings': {
'VCCLCompilerTool': { 'ExceptionHandling': 1 },
},
Alternatively, disable use of C++ exceptions in Node-API:
'defines': [ 'NAPI_DISABLE_CPP_EXCEPTIONS' ],
If you decide to use node-addon-api without C++ exceptions enabled, please consider enabling node-addon-api safe API type guards to ensure the proper exception handling pattern:
'defines': [ 'NODE_ADDON_API_ENABLE_MAYBE' ],
- If you would like your native addon to support OSX, please also add the
following settings in the
binding.gyp
file:
'conditions': [
['OS=="mac"', {
'cflags+': ['-fvisibility=hidden'],
'xcode_settings': {
'GCC_SYMBOLS_PRIVATE_EXTERN': 'YES', # -fvisibility=hidden
}
}]
]
- Include
napi.h
in the native module code. To ensure only ABI-stable APIs are used, DO NOT includenode.h
,nan.h
, orv8.h
.
#include "napi.h"
At build time, the Node-API back-compat library code will be used only when the targeted node version does not have Node-API built-in.
The preprocessor directive NODE_ADDON_API_DISABLE_DEPRECATED
can be defined at
compile time before including napi.h
to skip the definition of deprecated APIs.
By default, throwing an exception on a terminating environment (eg. worker
threads) will cause a fatal exception, terminating the Node process. This is to
provide feedback to the user of the runtime error, as it is impossible to pass
the error to JavaScript when the environment is terminating. In order to bypass
this behavior such that the Node process will not terminate, define the
preprocessor directive NODE_API_SWALLOW_UNTHROWABLE_EXCEPTIONS
.