Error importing Node.js modules into Intern tests - node.js

Question

I'm trying out Intern for testing our Node.js modules. I've got it set up to run an empty test and even require node modules, but when I try to require one of the modules in our package I get the error:
/path/to/app/node_modules/path/path.js:327
var path = (i >= 0) ? arguments[i] : process.cwd();
^
TypeError: undefined is not a function
at Object.exports.resolve (/path/to/app/node_modules/path/path.js:327:52)
at Object.exports.relative (/path/to/app/node_modules/path/path.js:405:20)
at getSource (/path/to/app/node_modules/intern/lib/util.js:368:21)
at formatLine (/path/to/app/node_modules/intern/lib/util.js:405:40)
at processChromeTrace (/path/to/app/node_modules/intern/lib/util.js:418:16)
at normalizeStackTrace (/path/to/app/node_modules/intern/lib/util.js:470:38)
at Object.getErrorMessage (/path/to/app/node_modules/intern/lib/util.js:597:14)
at PreExecutor._handleError (/path/to/app/node_modules/intern/lib/executors/PreExecutor.js:256:24)
at /path/to/app/node_modules/intern/node_modules/dojo/lang.js:78:32
at process.<anonymous> (/path/to/app/node_modules/intern/lib/executors/PreExecutor.js:302:6)
Folder structure is:
src/
**/*.coffee
tests
unit/**/*.coffee
intern.js
js/ (coffeescript is compiled here)
src/
**/*.js
tests/
**/*.js
all.js (compiled by rolling up the names of the other tests under /js/tests)
node_modules
Here's my intern.js:
define({
capabilities: {
'browserstack.selenium_version': '2.45.0'
},
environments: [
{browserName: 'internet explorer', version: '11', platform: 'WIN8'},
{browserName: 'internet explorer', version: '10', platform: 'WIN8'},
{browserName: 'internet explorer', version: '9', platform: 'WINDOWS'},
{browserName: 'firefox', version: '37', platform: ['WINDOWS', 'MAC']},
{browserName: 'chrome', version: '39', platform: ['WINDOWS', 'MAC']},
{browserName: 'safari', version: '8', platform: 'MAC'}
],
maxConcurrency: 2,
tunnel: 'BrowserStackTunnel',
loaderOptions: {
packages: [{name: 'app', location: 'js/src'}]
},
reporters: ['Console', 'Lcov'],
suites: ['js/tests/unit/all'],
excludeInstrumentation: /^(?:\.npm|js\/tests|src|tests|node_modules)\//
});
My test is just:
define (require) ->
registerSuite = require('intern!object')
assert = require('intern/chai!assert')
SchemaBuilder = require('intern/dojo/node!app/path/to/Module')
registerSuite
name: 'Testing'
'test': ->
From the project root I'm running './node_modules/.bin/intern-client config=tests/intern'
Is this a problem with my code, configuration, environment, or Intern?
I've tried with Node.js v0.12.0 and v0.12.7.

Answer 1

Interestingly, removing the path module from my app dependencies (package.json) resolved (well, avoided) the undefined is not a function error, seemingly falling back on Intern's own path resolution. I don't really know why, but this seems like a bug.
This presented a new, more tractable error: Error: Cannot find module 'app/path/to/Module', suggesting the path in the require() was simply wrong.
I think the problem is that the intern/dojo/node loader doesn't support the loaderOptions: {packages: [{name: 'app', location: 'js/src'}]} configuration, and hence it is searching for an app directory relative to the test module. If I replace app/ with ../../../../js/src/ then it resolves and works as expected.
It's a bit ugly, but it's the standard way of requiring local files in node, so it's also not too surprising, I had just hoped Intern's loader could make it cleaner.