Introducing custom (library) modules for NetSuite SuiteScript

Most NetSuite developers are familiar with the SuiteScript modules that NetSuite provides. These modules are a great way to get started with SuiteScript, but they have some limitations. In this article, we will explore how to use libraries compatible with the AMD engine.

Note: This article assumes you are familiar with the basics of SuiteScript and the AMD engine. If you are not, I recommend reading the SuiteScript 2.x Modules and SuiteScript 2.0 AMD articles on the NetSuite developer docs.

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🔧 What Is AMD?

AMD stands for Asynchronous Module Definition. It is a module system for JavaScript that allows you to load modules asynchronously. This is useful for loading modules in the browser, but it is also useful for loading modules in NetSuite. The AMD engine is built into NetSuite, and it is used to load the modules that NetSuite provides. It is also used to load custom modules that you create.

🤔 The Problem

The problem with the NetSuite modules is that there is community maintained code that we cannot use in our projects due to the AMD limitation. For example, we cannot use the popular lodash library because how are we going to define lodash once we download it? This is a problem because lodash is a very useful library that can help us write better code. NetSuite doesn't have a dedicated package manager for SuiteScript modules, so we have to use a workaround.

📚 The Solution

The solution is to use a library that is compatible with the AMD engine. There are many libraries that are compatible with the AMD engine, but we will use lodash for this example.

There are also ways to use libraries that are not compatible with the AMD engine, but that is outside the scope of this article.

Getting Into It

In this section, we will go over how to use lodash in our SuiteApp/Account Customization Project. We will also go over how to use lodash in our SuiteScript files.

If you are starting from scratch I would create a new Account Customization Project. If you are adding this to an existing project, you can continue and follow along but notate the difference in folder/file stucture with the SuiteApp project type.

1. Downloading the library

   First, we need to download the lodash library. We can do this by running the following command in our terminal:

   npm install lodash
   

   OR

   You can download the lodash library from the lodash website.

   Now if you are using bower you can use the bower install lodash command. What will happen is we will have to copy the lodash output folder from bower_componenets into the SuiteScripts/packages folder of our SuiteApp/Account Customization Project so it is accessible to the AMD engine within the File Cabinet.

   NOTE: To save you time and size (memory) in the file cabinet I recommend using the GZIP version of the library you choose to add to your project.

2. Adding the placement of all custom libraries

   Next, we need to create a new folder in our SuiteApp/Account Customization Project. We will call this folder packages. This folder will contain all of our custom library modules.

   You will create the packages folder in the root of your SuiteApp/Account Customization Project. Project types differ in the location the folder should be placed. See below for the location of the packages folder for each project type.

   • SuiteApp Project Type: src/FileCabinet/SuiteApps/YourSuiteApp/packages
   • Account Customization Project Type: src/FileCabinet/SuiteScripts/packages

3. Adding the library to the packages folder

   Next, we need to create a new folder in our packages folder. We will call this folder @lodash. This folder will contain the lodash library.

   You will create the @lodash folder in the packages folder.

4. Copying the library into the packages/@lodash folder

   Now we need to copy the lodash library into our packages folder. We can do this by running the following command in our terminal:

Using lodash in SuiteScript (any AMD library)

In this section, we will go over how to use lodash in our SuiteScript files. We will also go over how to use lodash in our SuiteApp/Account Customization Project.

Setting up the AMD Configuration

Depending on how you have your project set up and if it is bundled or not you may have to make a logical decision on how to set up the AMD Configuration. For this example we will assume that we are using the SuiteApp project type that we are having to bundle for distribution.

1. Adding the AMD Configuration

   First, we need to add the AMD Configuration JSON file to our project. We can do this by adding the following code to our amdConfig.json:

   {
     "baseUrl": "src/FileCabinet/SuiteApps/YourSuiteApp",
     "paths": {
       "lodash": "packages/@lodash/"
     }
   }
   

   You will add the AMD Configuration to the root of your SuiteApp/Account Customization Project. Project types differ in the location the amdConfig.json should be placed. See below for the location of the amdConfig.json for each project type.

   • SuiteApp Project Type: src/FileCabinet/SuiteApps/YourSuiteApp/amdConfig.json
   • Account Customization Project Type: src/FileCabinet/SuiteScripts/amdConfig.json

   The AMD config should be put into a root most level or root of the relative folder for example: src/FileCabinet/SuiteApps/YourSuiteApp/scripts/user-event/amdConfig.json, src/FileCabinet/SuiteApps/YourSuiteApp/scripts/amdConfig.json etc.

   Lets put the AMD file in the root of the scripts/user-event folder for this example. I will explain why this is the best route later.

2. Setting up the AMD File Contents

   The contents of this file are very important. This is where we will tell the AMD engine where to find our lodash library. We can do this by adding the following code to our amdConfig.json:

   {
     "baseUrl": "../../packages",
     "paths": {
       "lodash": "@lodash/lodash.min.js"
     }
   }
   

   This will point to all us to import lodash in our SuiteScript files. When we normally define a module we would do something like this:

   define(['N/record'], function(record) {
     // do something with record
   })
   

   For a custom module you create a SuiteScript file it looks something like this:

   define(['../lib/pt_ex_cm_test.js'], function(customModule) {
     // do something with custom module
       const foo = () => {
           return 'foo'
       }
   
       const bar = () => {
           return 'bar'
       }
   
       return {
           foo,
           bar
       }
   })
   

   But now we can do something like this:

   define(['lodash'], function(_) {
     // do something with lodash
   })
   

Bada Bing Bada Boom! 🚀

You can now repeat this process with any library that is compatible with the AMD engine. Just revisit these setup steps and you will be good to go!

Conclusion

In this article, we went over how to use libraries compatible with the AMD engine. We also went over how to use lodash in our SuiteScript files. I hope this article was helpful and you learned something new. If you have any questions or comments please shoot me an email! Thanks for reading! 😎