setup.md

Setup

Prerequisites

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

  • node-gyp

Installation and usage

To use Node-API in a native module:

1. Add a dependency on this package to package.json:

  "dependencies": {
    "node-addon-api": "*",
  }

2. Reference this package's include directory and gyp file in binding.gyp:

  'include_dirs': ["<!(node -p \"require('node-addon-api').include_dir\")"],

3. 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' ],

4. 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
      }
  }]
]

5. Include napi.h in the native module code. To ensure only ABI-stable APIs are used, DO NOT include node.h, nan.h, or v8.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.