ExecJS
ExecJS lets you run JavaScript code from Ruby. It automatically picks
the best runtime available to evaluate your JavaScript program, then
returns the result to you as a Ruby object.
ExecJS supports these runtimes:
- therubyracer - Google V8
embedded within Ruby - therubyrhino - Mozilla
Rhino embedded within JRuby - Node.js
- Apple JavaScriptCore - Included with Mac OS X
- Microsoft Windows Script Host (JScript)
A short example:
require "execjs"
ExecJS.eval "'red yellow blue'.split(' ')"
# => ["red", "yellow", "blue"]
A longer example, demonstrating how to invoke the CoffeeScript compiler:
require "execjs"
require "open-uri"
source = open("http://coffeescript.org/extras/coffee-script.js").read
context = ExecJS.compile(source)
context.call("CoffeeScript.compile", "square = (x) -> x * x", bare: true)
# => "var square;\nsquare = function(x) {\n return x * x;\n};"
Installation
$ gem install execjs
FAQ
Why can't I use CommonJS require() inside ExecJS?
ExecJS provides a lowest common denominator interface to any JavaScript runtime.
Use ExecJS when it doesn't matter which JavaScript interpreter your code runs
in. If you want to access the Node API, you should check another library like
commonjs.rb designed to provide a
consistent interface.
Why can't I use setTimeout?
For similar reasons as modules, not all runtimes guarantee a full JavaScript
event loop. So setTimeout, setInterval and other timers are not defined.
Why can't I use ES5 features?
Some runtimes like Node will implement many of the latest ES5 features. However
older stock runtimes like JSC on OSX and JScript on Windows may not. You should
only count on ES3 features being available. Prefer feature checking these APIs
rather than hard coding support for specific runtimes.
Can ExecJS be used to sandbox scripts?
No, ExecJS shouldn't be used for any security related sandboxing. Since runtimes
are automatically detected, each runtime has different sandboxing properties.
You shouldn't use ExecJS.eval on any inputs you wouldn't feel comfortable Ruby
eval()ing.
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Sam Stephenson and Josh Peek.
Released under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.