access library functions in leiningen REPL - clojure

Question

For the development of a library I started from a lein project, invoked like so:
lein new mylib
if I call lein install now, I can access my library in other projects. But trying to immidiately test the functions I wrote failed:
lein repl
...
(dir mylib.core)
Exception No namespace: mylib.core found clojure.core/the-ns (core.clj:4008)
Do I have to add something to the project.clj file maybe?

Answer 1

In order to use a library you must cause the code to be loaded - that it be on the classpath is not sufficient.
You can do this easily in an ns declaration in a file of course, but in the repl it can be easier to use (require '[my-lib.whatever :as w]) after which one can call (w/foo) (w/bar) etc. as expected. You can also use (in-ns 'my-lib.whatever) in order to switch to the namespace, but this will not give you a good result unless you have previously used require or use or load-file etc. to get the definitions first.

Answer 2

Let's say you created a new library named clj-foo.
% lein new clj-foo
Start your repl.
% cd clj-foo
% lein repl
In the repl, load the main entry point to your library and switch to its namespace.
(load-file "src/clj_foo/core.clj")
(ns clj-foo.core)
Now you're in the clj-foo.core namespace, make sure to add back in the repl ns to get things like doc available.
(use 'clojure.repl)
That's it. You're all set to start calling functions in your library. Note that other library files will be available from the clj-foo.core namespace if they were loaded by namespace declaration at the top of clj_foo/core.clj. If not, then you'll need to invoke load-file with their path as well.
If you make changes in core.clj. You can invoke load-file again to pick up the new code. As you progress, you can use cider to facilitate loading of individual functions and files. But that's for another question. :)

Answer 3

You need to add a dependency to use your library from another project. To do this add a vector (a tuple-2) to the vector that is the value of the :dependencies key in the project.clj file. Here's an example:
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.7.0"]
[org.clojure/clojurescript "1.7.170"]
[org.clojure/core.async "0.2.371"]
[default-db-format "0.1.0-SNAPSHOT"]
[com.andrewmcveigh/cljs-time "0.3.14"]]
My own local library is called default-db-format. Its really no different to adding a dependency for com.andrewmcveigh/cljs-time.
As you say you can already do this, but are having trouble getting a REPL connection to the project of the library itself. When you go (in-ns 'some-path), you need the single quote in front of some-path. Note that some-path is a different thing to the name of your library.
Rather than use lein repl you can use the figwheel repl - if your project is setup with figwheel. My library has only one entry point and that is lein figwheel devcards. After that I had no problem going to a namespace and trying out a function:
cljs.user=> (in-ns 'default-db-format.core)
nil
default-db-format.core=> (check 1 2)
As noisesmith mentioned having a REPL in your IDE is the best setup. No fiddly typing just bring up pre-configured REPLs (per namespace) with the click of a button (or keystroke). Figwheel/Cursive setup instructions here.

Answer 4

I was also facing the same issue with the following configuration:
Leiningen 2.9.0 on Java 1.8.0_201 Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM
My file looks like this, and from the repl I desired to invoke the foo function
(ns cljtest.test
(:gen-class))
(defn foo [input]
(assoc {} "a" 123))
Both these approaches worked fine for me on the repl.
1)Switch to the appropriate name space:
cljtest.core=> (in-ns 'cljtest.test)
#object[clojure.lang.Namespace 0x90175dd "cljtest.test"]
cljtest.test=> (foo nil)
{"a" 123}
cljtest.test=>
2)Require the appropriate name space:
cljtest.core=> (require '[cljtest.test :as test])
nil
cljtest.core=> (test/foo nil)
{"a" 123}
cljtest.core=>