How to install a node.js module without using npm?

These modules can't be installed using npm.

Actually you can install a module by specifying instead of a name a local path. As long as the repository has a valid package.json file it should work.

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Type npm -l and a pretty help will appear like so :

CLI:

...
install     npm install <tarball file>
                npm install <tarball url>
                npm install <folder>
                npm install <pkg>
                npm install <pkg>@<tag>
                npm install <pkg>@<version>
                npm install <pkg>@<version range>
                
                Can specify one or more: npm install ./foo.tgz bar@stable /some/folder
                If no argument is supplied and ./npm-shrinkwrap.json is 
                present, installs dependencies specified in the shrinkwrap.
                Otherwise, installs dependencies from ./package.json.

What caught my eyes was: npm install <folder>

In my case I had trouble with mrt module so I did this (in a temporary directory)

• Clone the repo

     git clone https://github.com/oortcloud/meteorite.git
  

• And I install it globally with:

     npm install -g ./meteorite
  

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Tip:

One can also install in the same manner the repo to a local npm project with:

     npm install ../meteorite

And also one can create a link to the repo, in case a patch in development is needed:

     npm link ../meteorite

Edit:

Nowadays npm supports also github and git repositories (see https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v6/commands/npm-install), as a shorthand you can run :

npm i github.com:some-user/some-repo

You need to download their source from the github. Find the main file and then include it in your main file.

An example of this can be found here > How to manually install a node.js module?

Usually you need to find the source and go through the package.json file. There you can find which is the main file. So that you can include that in your application.

To include example.js in your app. Copy it in your application folder and append this on the top of your main js file.

var moduleName = require("path/to/example.js")