Setup

Prerequisites

Before starting to use N-API you need to assure you have the following
prerequisites:

• Node.JS see: Installing Node.js

• Node.js native addon build tool

• node-gyp

Installation and usage

To use N-API in a native module:

1. Add a dependency on this package to package.json:

  "dependencies": {
    "node-addon-api": "*",
  }

1. Reference this package's include directory and gyp file in binding.gyp:

  'include_dirs': ["<!(node -p \"require('node-addon-api').include_dir\")"],

1. Decide whether the package will enable C++ exceptions in the N-API wrapper.
   The base ABI-stable C APIs do not throw or handle C++ exceptions, but the
   N-API C++ wrapper classes may optionally
   integrate C++ and JavaScript exception-handling
   .
   To enable that capability, C++ exceptions must be enabled in binding.gyp:

  'cflags!': [ '-fno-exceptions' ],
  'cflags_cc!': [ '-fno-exceptions' ],
  'xcode_settings': {
    'GCC_ENABLE_CPP_EXCEPTIONS': 'YES',
    'CLANG_CXX_LIBRARY': 'libc++',
    'MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET': '10.7',
  },
  'msvs_settings': {
    'VCCLCompilerTool': { 'ExceptionHandling': 1 },
  },

Alternatively, disable use of C++ exceptions in N-API:

  'defines': [ 'NAPI_DISABLE_CPP_EXCEPTIONS' ],

1. If you would like your native addon to support OSX, please also add the
   following settings in the binding.gyp file:

gyp ['OS=="mac"', { 'cflags+': ['-fvisibility=hidden'], 'xcode_settings': { 'GCC_SYMBOLS_PRIVATE_EXTERN': 'YES', # -fvisibility=hidden } }]

1. Include napi.h in the native module code.
   To ensure only ABI-stable APIs are used, DO NOT include
   node.h, nan.h, or v8.h.

#include "napi.h"

At build time, the N-API back-compat library code will be used only when the
targeted node version does not have N-API built-in.

The preprocessor directive NODE_ADDON_API_DISABLE_DEPRECATED can be defined at
compile time before including napi.h to skip the definition of deprecated APIs.