My Journey Creating the best-bible npm Library

Hey everyone! I’m BestCodes, and I want to share my adventure of creating my very first npm library. As a full-stack developer, I use npm libraries all the time, but I had never made one myself. I figured it was about time to dive in, learn something new, and have some fun along the way. So, here’s the story of how best-bible came to life.

The Idea Spark

I’m a big fan of the Bible, especially the King James Version (KJV). I'm a Christian, so that's to be expected. I thought, "Why not make a library that makes it super easy to interact with it?" So, that’s what I did. best-bible is all about helping you grab different verses, chapters, and more from the KJV Bible with ease.

Getting My Hands Dirty

Tools and Tech

To build this, I used a JSON file of the Bible and good old JavaScript. I wanted the library to be flexible, so it supports ECMAScript Modules (ESM), CommonJS (CJS), and TypeScript. That way, it can fit into pretty much any project setup.

The Tough Parts

Adding TypeScript support was a real headache. I had to set up a tsconfig.json file and figure out the types for everything. Making sure it worked with both import and require statements took some serious trial and error. (Serious trial and error. I went through nearly 60 versions!).

When I got stuck, I turned to Google or asked AI for help. I even found some great articles on DEV! There’s a ton of great info out there, and the developer community is awesome, so I managed to push through the tough spots.

Testing and Docs

Testing was super important to make sure everything worked smoothly. I installed the library on different machines and wrote tests to catch any bugs. For documentation, I put together a detailed README and set up more docs on my website.

Flying Solo

This project was all me. It was challenging, but also really rewarding. Doing it solo meant I got to learn and grow a lot, figuring out the whole process of creating an npm library from scratch.

Launch and Feedback

I just launched best-bible, so I haven’t gotten much feedback yet. I’m excited to hear what people think and how they use it. Feedback is super helpful for making improvements.

Some Advice

If you’re thinking about making your own npm library, here’s my advice: keep at it, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are tons of resources out there, and the developer community is great. Most importantly, have fun with it!

Creating best-bible was an awesome experience, and I hope you find it useful. If you give it a try or have any feedback, let me know. Happy coding!