This is the normal form of importing modules.

You can think of this object like nested objects which properties are the JavaScript files or directories. All functions, variables (var, let, const) in a JavaScript file can be accessed like this file is an object.

To clarify, an example:

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//Direct access to file a.js
const A = imports.a;
//Directories must be also typed in, in order to get file c.js in directory b
const C = imports.b.c;

log(A.foo); //"Property foo"
log(A.bar()); //"Method bar"
log(C.baz); //"Property baz"

a.js

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let foo = "Property foo";

function bar(){
  return "Method bar";
}

c.js in a directory named b

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let baz = "Property baz";

In every case, you can include cjs core modules. Those provide you useful functions or (less often) bindings to C libraries.

Examples are:

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const Cairo = imports.cairo; //Cairo graphics
const Lang = imports.lang; //useful JavaScript functions for extensing the language
const Gettext = imports.gettext; //Gettext translation
const TweenEquations = imports.tweener.equations; //Tween equations for animations

As you can see, it is common to assign the import to a constant in UpperCamelCase which looks like the imported module.

To view the source of those cjs modules, you should visit the GitHub page.

As Cinnamon uses C libraries like Clutter, Muffin and more, there is a little problem: How can those libraries be used in cjs?

For this, there is GObject Introspection. In short, it allows you to use C libraries in cjs, Python and other languages.

C libraries are included like this:

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const St = imports.gi.St; //Shell Toolkit, the normal way to display widgets on the Cinnamon screen
const Cinnamon = imports.gi.Cinnamon; //Cinnamon C libraries, e.g. AppSystem

Note: Not like normal imports.*, imports.gi.* imports needs to have the first letter after gi. be in upper case.

Those imports under imports.ui.* are core Cinnamon modules.

Some important modules:

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const PopupMenu = imports.ui.popupMenu; //High-level classes for building menus for applets or context menus
const Applet = imports.ui.applet; //Base applet classes

The source is in /usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/

Those imports under imports.misc.* belong to Cinnamon, but aren't tied to it as much as imports.ui.*.

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const Util = imports.misc.util; //useful functions
const Interfaces = imports.misc.interfaces; //DBus stuff

The source is in /usr/share/cinnamon/js/misc/

When you want to split a big xlet file into smaller files, you'll need to import them. The best way is using imports.ui.manager.xlet[UUID]. manager is one of appletManager, deskletManager, or extensionSystem. xlet is the xlet type pluralized and is one of applets, desklets, or extensions. UUID is the string of your xlet's UUID.

Importing for applets:

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const Module = imports.ui.appletManager['foo@bar'].module; // get module.js in your applet directory

Importing for desklets:

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const Module = imports.ui.deskletManager['foo@bar'].module; // get module.js in your desklet directory

Importing for extensions:

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const Module = imports.ui.extensionSystem['foo@bar'].module; // get module.js in your extension directory

In Cinnamon 3.6+, there is now a simpler way to import files using require. This method is not compatible with previous versions of Cinnamon.

Importing GI modules:

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const Cinnamon = require('gi.Cinnamon');

Importing Cinnamon modules:

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const DND = require('ui.dnd');

Importing other JS files (".js" extension is optional):

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const MenuItem = require('./menuItem.js').MenuItem;

You can also manually export your modules by adding them to module.exports at the end of the file. Inside your module file:

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function MenuItem() {...}
...
module.exports = MenuItem;

Then from the file you want import MenuItem from:

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const MenuItem = require('./menuItem');