Firstly, I am very to the world or Node.js etc so apologies if this is an obvious problem.

I am creating a custom packages with a few ponents:

One ponent for example is this?

class MailProcess {
    constructor(name, code) {
        this.name = name;
        this.code = code;
    }
}

module.exports = {MailProcess: MailProcess};

and in my index file:

export {MailProcess} from "./mail/MailProcess";
// export more ponents like above

and my json file:

{
  "name": "packagename",
  "version": "1.0.3",
  "description": "Private package",
  "main": "index.js",
  "publishConfig": {
    "registry": "/...."
  },
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "aws-sdk": "^2.1172.0",
    "mysql": "^2.18.1"
  }
}

and in my Main code I (after installing the above package) I implement like this:

let {MailProcess} = require('@myusername/mypackagename');

but the error get thrown of

SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'export' relating to the index file.

I am wondering what I might be doing wrong. Essentially my pack contains a few different classes and I try to export them in index so the code using this package has access

Thanks for any help

Firstly, I am very to the world or Node.js etc so apologies if this is an obvious problem.

I am creating a custom packages with a few ponents:

One ponent for example is this?

class MailProcess {
    constructor(name, code) {
        this.name = name;
        this.code = code;
    }
}

module.exports = {MailProcess: MailProcess};

and in my index file:

export {MailProcess} from "./mail/MailProcess";
// export more ponents like above

and my json file:

{
  "name": "packagename",
  "version": "1.0.3",
  "description": "Private package",
  "main": "index.js",
  "publishConfig": {
    "registry": "https://npm.pkg.github./...."
  },
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "aws-sdk": "^2.1172.0",
    "mysql": "^2.18.1"
  }
}

and in my Main code I (after installing the above package) I implement like this:

let {MailProcess} = require('@myusername/mypackagename');

but the error get thrown of

SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'export' relating to the index file.

I am wondering what I might be doing wrong. Essentially my pack contains a few different classes and I try to export them in index so the code using this package has access

Thanks for any help

• javascript
• node.js
• node-modules

• I think you can do this instead : export * from "./mail/MailProcess"; – Colin Hale Commented Jul 12, 2022 at 19:11
• I don't think node js allows/reads export ponents. I have encountered this error too. – Alexander Obidiegwu Commented Jul 12, 2022 at 19:12
• @ColinHale unfortunately also doesn't work – user19517065 Commented Jul 12, 2022 at 19:27
• I guess i'm not sure but this may help. Looks like you may need to add the directory to the "exports" property in the package.json. nodejs/api/packages.html See: Package entry points – Colin Hale Commented Jul 12, 2022 at 19:33
• Why are you mixing Commonjs module.exports with ESM export declarations? Decide on one style (preferably the modern ESM), then use it everywhere. Read nodejs/api/modules.html and nodejs/api/esm.html. – Bergi Commented Jul 12, 2022 at 19:37

2 Answers 2

Just set the type property to module in the package.json file:

{
  "name": "blabla",
  // ...
  "type": "module",
  // ... rest
}

Ok so I had this same issue, albeit with a different setup and I stumbled upon this question. At this point it may not be needed anymore, but I wanted to share what solved the problem in my case, in case it may help somebody else down the line.

My setup was basically a NodeJs (v16) project acting as a server, a frontend (not relevant to the problem) and the shared Types package.

My issue was that while everything worked fine when using npm link, it would not when publishing the Types package and installing it. Needless to say that the error was the same one:

export * from "./blocks";
^^^^^^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'export'

More specifically, in the top level index.ts of the Types package, which was "exporting everything out".

To give an idea, this was the relevant part of my package.json for my Types package:

"name": "vnotes-types",
  "version": "1.1.3",
  "description": "types for the VNotes application",
  "main": "./src/index.ts",
  "scripts": {
    "pile": "tsc"
  },

Moreover, on tsc I was piling everything to a ./lib folder.

And the solution, basically, was:

• Changing "main": "./src/index.ts" to "main": "./lib/index.js",. Here the problem was that I would employ the non-piled index.ts (/src/index.ts) and import everything from there.
• Adding "types": "./lib/index.d.ts". Basically points out to the type declarations.
• I think this one isn't 100% necessary, but it reduces the size and clutter of the package: "files": ["./lib"] will only bundle the /lib folder, so your /src folder won't be included in the installation.

Hope this one helps people avoid wasting a stupid amount of time like I did to solve this issue.