https imports in Node.js (aka 'import from url')

https-loader.js

import { get } from "node:https";

export function resolve(specifier, context, nextResolve) {
  const { parentURL = null } = context;

  // Normally Node.js would error on specifiers starting with 'https://', so
  // this hook intercepts them and converts them into absolute URLs to be
  // passed along to the later hooks below.
  if (specifier.startsWith("https://")) {
    return {
      shortCircuit: true,
      url: specifier,
    };
  } else if (parentURL && parentURL.startsWith("https://")) {
    return {
      shortCircuit: true,
      url: new URL(specifier, parentURL).href,
    };
  }

  // Let Node.js handle all other specifiers.
  return nextResolve(specifier);
}

export function load(url, context, nextLoad) {
  // For JavaScript to be loaded over the network, we need to fetch and
  // return it.
  if (url.startsWith("https://")) {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      get(url, (res) => {
        let data = "";
        res.on("data", (chunk) => (data += chunk));
        res.on("end", () =>
          resolve({
            // This example assumes all network-provided JavaScript is ES module
            // code.
            format: "module",
            shortCircuit: true,
            source: data,
          })
        );
      }).on("error", (err) => reject(err));
    });
  }

  // Let Node.js handle all other URLs.
  return nextLoad(url);
}

index.js

import { example } from "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/o-az/e8ed1e89fde52af306099ed28e297cae/raw/51a1d68f54ba0718c2ab72a52b97f13cf613563f/sample.js";

console.log(example());

Node.js-https-imports.md

https imports

Node.js requires a custom https-loader: https://nodejs.org/api/esm.html#https-loader

The loader (https-loader.js):

The sample file (sample.js):

export const example = () => ({ foo: "bar" });

The test snippet (index.js):

import { example } from "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/o-az/e8ed1e89fde52af306099ed28e297cae/raw/51a1d68f54ba0718c2ab72a52b97f13cf613563f/sample.js";

console.log(example());

The command:

Runtime	Command
Node.js	node --experimental-loader='./https-loader.js' index.js
Deno	deno run --allow-net index.js

sample-iife.js

;(() => ({ foo: console.log('bar') }))()

sample.js

export const example = () => ({ foo: "bar" });