Indexes

This is the framework's solution to reducing manual requires for utility modules. As paths change, it may get annoying to constantly update requires for every module that uses it.

Thus, it is recommended to use the @indexed annotation for utility modules, classes, and other pure modules you need often. This places modules inside of an Index module which returns a table of these modules.

Warning

Note that indexes may cause circular dependency issues if misused. They should only be used for pure-data utility modules used frequently in other places of your code.

For accessing indexed modules from another indexed module, just use relative requires.

For example, say we have a simple utility module:

MyUtils.lua

--@indexed
local module = {}

function module.printHello()
    print('Hello World!')
end

return module

We can then import it from anywhere else:

local ReplicatedStorage = game:GetService('ReplicatedStorage')
local Index = require(ReplicatedStorage.Generated.Index)
local MyUtils = Index.MyUtils

MyUtils.printHello()

The annotation also accepts an argument, which places the indexed module in a nested table which is inside of the index.

For example, you define an indexed module with @indexed, Utils. You can then import it as follows:

local MyUtils = Index.Utils.MyUtils
MyUtils.printHello()

Naming indexed modules

By default, the key is the module's returned name. You may override it with the name kwarg:

MathUtil.lua

--@indexed, Utils, name=Math
local module = {}

return module

This may be imported as:

local Math = Index.Utils.Math

Generated service types

The index extension also writes Generated/ServiceTypes.lua. This file contains generated types for services, components, dependencies, dependency injection tables, and remote dependency wrappers.

There is no separate @indexedType annotation. Type generation is tied to the game framework annotations, such as @service, @component, and @dependency.