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Docs | Val Town

Interop with Node, Deno, and Browsers

Vals can be written in TypeScript and JavaScript. JavaScript is the natural language of the web, and benefits from having many different runtimes.

So you can run your vals outside of Val Town, but because each of the JavaScript runtimes is a bit different, there are some notes to be aware of.

Deno

Val Town’s own runtime is built on Deno, so naturally vals run best on Deno outside of Val Town. You can reasonably expect Deno to just work with Vals: you can just copy the Module URL from the dropdown menu in the val editor and plug it into Deno:

Terminal window
$ deno run https://esm.town/v/tmcw/randomVal
0.5133662021089374

Caveats: When you run vals locally, you’ll need to make sure that any environment variables you’ve set in Val Town are set as environment variables in your local environment.

Private vals can be run by setting DENO_AUTH_TOKENS. Create an API token in Val Town, and then use it for the esm.town domain:

Terminal window
$ DENO_AUTH_TOKENS=xxx@esm.town deno run https://esm.town/v/tmcw/privateVal


Hello world!

Browsers

Both Val Town and Deno aim to use the web platform and build on web standards, so many vals will also run in browsers!

Our module endpoint will transpile TypeScript code to JavaScript code when it receives a request that meets the criteria:

  • The requester is not Deno.
  • Neither text/html nor text/tsx are specified in the HTTP Accept header.

This means that if you go to a Val’s source code directly on its esm.town URL, you’ll see TypeScript, but if you import that code via JavaScript in the browser, your browser will get the code as JavaScript.

<script type="module">
  import rand from "https://esm.town/v/tmcw/randomVal";
  console.log(rand);
</script>

To use a val from a browser, you’ll need to import it from script with type="module" - Vals use the ES Module Syntax.

Caveats: While we support Web Platform APIs, we also support many APIs that aren’t available in web browsers. Unlike web browsers, Deno can read files, interact with environment variables, and much more. Vals that use these Deno or Node-specific APIs will not automatically work in browsers.

Private vals can’t be used directly in browsers yet, because there’s no web standard we can follow to support them.

Node.js

Using Node.js with Vals directly relies on relatively new APIs in Node.js, specifically the support for HTTP and HTTPS imports. This requires you to run Node with a the --experimental-network-imports flag, and has a number of caveats. However, for simple vals, it works.

Create a JavaScript file that Node.js will execute as ESM, in this case prompting that by using the .mjs extension.

index.mjs
import rand from "https://esm.town/v/tmcw/randomVal";
console.log(rand);

Then run Node.js with the specified flag:

Terminal window
$ node --experimental-network-imports index.mjs
0.4050279110448427

Node.js with dnt

The more robust way of interoperating with Node.js is to use dnt. dnt is a tool that can repackage code written for Deno as NPM modules that are fully compatible with Node.js. It requires a bit more setup than the other options, but if you’re using Deno and NPM APIs and have more complex code, it can be a great option.

You’ll need to install and use Deno locally to run dnt.

Create a shim file that exports from your Val (dnt doesn’t support entry points over HTTP):

index.ts
export * from "https://esm.town/v/tmcw/randomVal?v=3";

Create a build file like:

build.ts
import { build, emptyDir } from "https://deno.land/x/dnt/mod.ts";


await emptyDir("./npm");


await build({
  entryPoints: ["index.ts"],
  outDir: "./npm",
  typecheck: false,
  shims: {
    deno: true,
  },
  package: {
    name: "your-val",
    version: Deno.args[0],
    description: "Your package.",
  },
  postBuild() {},
});

Run that build file with Deno:

Terminal window
$ deno run -A build.ts
[dnt] Transforming...
[dnt] Running npm install...


added 3 packages, and audited 4 packages in 543ms


found 0 vulnerabilities
[dnt] Building project...
[dnt] Type checking ESM...
[dnt] Emitting ESM package...
[dnt] Emitting script package...
[dnt] Running post build action...
[dnt] Running tests...


> test
> node test_runner.js


[dnt] Complete!

And now you’ll get a directory named npm that contains a Node-compatible module:

Terminal window
$ npm node
Welcome to Node.js v18.18.0.
Type ".help" for more information.
> require('./')
0.402717678920262
{}

Bun

Bun has Node.js compatibility but doesn’t support HTTP imports yet, so the best way to use Vals with Bun is to run them through dnt using the information above.