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Library Detection

The Ace library is located at runtime by ace_editor_lib_path() in ace_editor.module. It checks the following locations, in order, relative to the Drupal root:

  1. /libraries/ace
  2. /libraries/ace-builds
  3. <module path>/libraries
  4. <install profile path>/libraries/ace (only when a profile is active)

For each existing directory it scans recursively for a file named ace.js and returns the path of the first match (with the ace.js filename stripped). This means a nested build such as /libraries/ace/src-min-noconflict/ace.js resolves to /libraries/ace/src-min-noconflict/.

If no ace.js is found, the function returns FALSE; the module then surfaces a warning on install and an error on the status report (see ace_editor_requirements()).

Building the theme/mode libraries

Once the base path is known, hook_library_info_build() scans that directory (non-recursively) for files matching theme-*.js / mode-*.js and registers a Drupal library for each:

  • theme-cobalt.js → ace_editor/theme.cobalt
  • mode-html.js → ace_editor/mode.html

hook_library_info_alter() then prepends the resolved ace.js (weight -2) to the primary, formatter and filter libraries, and adds ext-language_tools.js to primary when autocomplete is enabled in configuration.

Consequences for packaging

Because detection is path-based and recursive, you can supply the library via:

  • a manual download into /libraries/ace (the src-min-noconflict build), or
  • a Composer-managed asset (npm-asset/ace-builds via asset-packagist), or
  • the module's own libraries/ directory.

No configuration is needed — the first ace.js found wins.