Is there a standard way to require a Node module located at some URL (not on the local filesystem)?
Something like:
require('http://example.com/nodejsmodules/myModule.js');
Currently, I am simply fetching the file into a temporary file, and requiring that.
You can fetch module using http.get method and execute it in the sandbox using vm module methods runInThisContext and runInNewContext.
Example
var http = require('http')
, vm = require('vm')
, concat = require('concat-stream'); // this is just a helper to receive the
// http payload in a single callback
// see https://www.npmjs.com/package/concat-stream
http.get({
host: 'example.com',
port: 80,
path: '/hello.js'
},
function(res) {
res.setEncoding('utf8');
res.pipe(concat({ encoding: 'string' }, function(remoteSrc) {
vm.runInThisContext(remoteSrc, 'remote_modules/hello.js');
}));
});
IMO, execution of the remote code inside server application runtime may be reasonable in the case without alternatives. And only if you trust to the remote service and the network between.
