The project I'm currently working on (Java/JSP) currently uses no package manager to manage its JavaScript dependencies.
The used libraries are just committed under version control, and referred as such from the JSP pages...
I would like to evolve to a workflow were we would use a package manager (e.g. yarn), and later on eventually also webpack to further optimise the build.
I would like to do this in a phased approach. As I have little to none experience with such a frontend workflow, I have some questions:
Would it be weird to just start with defining the used libraries in a package.json file, and use yarn to manage to package?
yarn will then fetch the modules and store them in the node_modules folder.
Is it bad practice to refer to the scripts in that node_modules folder directly from within the JSP files?
Example
package.json:
"dependencies": {
"jquery": "^3.4.1"
}
app.jsp:
<script src="node_modules/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js"></script>
Yes, that's completely ok. It's the way we normally initialize frontend projects (probably sometimes, some higher-level script does it for us but still). Just run npm init.
Oh yes, that's quite bad. Most probably, it simply will not work. If you want to load something directly on a page, you need a cdn version.
To be honest, having a package.json is not that useful without a building tool like webpack, gulp or grunt.
UPD:
Regarding why loading things directly from node_modules might hurt:
A lot of modern JS packages (like, for instance, React) use modules that are not implemented yet in any browser or ES5+ syntax which is supported only by some browsers.
This way, you may load React directly but it will crash in any browser with something like import is not defined.
Basically, a lot of modern packages expect you to either have a building tool or use cdn version.
Honestly, I don't know how many packages let you seamlessly load things directly from node_modules.
So, in your particular situation, I'd say that if particular packages you use let you do so & are shipped with browser-compatible version, you can just go ahead & do it this way.
Nevertheless, I see it highly possible that sooner or later you will face a package that will not let you to include it this way (or worse: it will, but will crash some browsers that don't support latest JS features/introduce other nasty bugs in your app).
Hopefully, at this stage, you will already have the building tool configured.
Bonus:
Relatively recently some browsers started to support modules!
There are even tools like snowpack that do something particularly similar to what you are looking for.
Even though, you still need to be very careful with this. Direct inclusion of lodash.js, for instance, will generate 640 GETs (check out this article -> "Libraries" section).
NPM packages are meant to be run with Node, not in a browser. You would need to serve a browser-friendly version, using something like webpack or browserify.
Getting started with webpack, and while not explicitly stated, a lot of examples and starter kits use NPM over Bower for managing their front-end libraries. Further, recent articles suggest we don't need Bower any more. Maybe I'm using the wrong workflow, but I don't see how NPM can fully replace Bower when you're using libraries with shared dependencies.
Consider a project that uses jQuery and two jquery plugins. The first requires 2.2.0 and the other requires 2.0.3.
When webpack creates the bundle, two versions of jquery exist!?! Yes, the DedupePlugin can be used to remove the duplicates, but I can't find any documentation regarding which version it keeps. Seems like it just keeps the first one it encounters. Therefore, if I want to force a specific version, I need to npm install jquery and add a resolve.alias.
On the other hand, with Bower, I know exactly which version is being bundled. And should a conflict arise, it tells me. I can investigate the conflict and specify the appropriate version.
What am I missing? How are you using Webpack with front-end libraries? What is your workflow?
What is the best approach to Wordpress plugin development when your plugin requires numerous javascript library dependencies?
My example: I'm developing a plugin which makes heavy use of the Backgrid.js library in the plugins administration area. Basic dependencies of Backgrid.js are Backbone.js and Underscore.js. Not a problem because Wordpress includes recent versions of both in recent versions.
The problem? In my Backgrid.js implementation I'm also having to use many of the available extensions, like backgrid-paginator to get pagination working. Many of the extensions are listed here: https://github.com/wyuenho/backgrid/wiki#extensions
My head scratcher is how to best manage this plugin long-term with my source control management. Because I did NOT want to go the long route of downloading each individual extension myself, I simply used Bower (http://bower.io/) within my plugin directory to quickly download these dependencies. This creates a /bower_components directory in my plugin folder where all these dependencies sit.
Now let me preface, I'm pretty new to using Bower. But I'm also pretty new to Wordpress development so I'm not completely up to speed with best practices for this platform. Only working on it due to a client necessitating it.
Of course now my Wordpress plugin is filled with loading scripts such as:
wp_enqueue_script('backgrid-paginator', CUSTOM_PLUGIN__PLUGIN_URL . 'bower_components/backgrid-paginator/backgrid-paginator.min.js', array( 'jquery','backbone','underscore','backgrid', 'backbone-pageable'));
wp_enqueue_style('backgrid-paginator-css', CUSTOM_PLUGIN__PLUGIN_URL . 'bower_components/backgrid-paginator/backgrid-paginator.min.css');
What is the best approach in managing this plugin long term with source control? I'm a little bit of a novice with Bower and everything on Google only talks about using Bower with Wordpress theme development. Nothing speaks to using it with plugin development.
Thinking now, is the best approach to create a Bower bower.json in my plugin directory, which includes all these dependencies? I'll add this bower.json file then to my source control for the plugin, but a README installation requirement will be including that the plugin requires XXX dependencies and the easiest way is to just run: bower install in the plugin's directory to grab everything?
Is that the best approach? I'm trying to consider long term and make whoevers job it will be to take over responsibility for the plugin easier! :)
To my knowledge WordPress has no real standard for managing JavaScript and CSS dependencies outside of the enqueuing them in the right order.
Using Bower for managing the dependencies is definitely a good idea. It will keep your repo clean of vendor files and make it easy to update libraries later on.
If you want to make your life a little bit easier, you can also look into Grunt JS or Gulp JS which are build tools. You can use these to compress, uglify, etc all your JavaScript and CSS files into distributable items (e.g. all.min.js & all.min.css). This will make it easier to add/remove libraries.
Using these will also keep your enqueue statements cleaner.
I am creating a javascript client side library which I will make available via Bower and depends on two other libraries, one that is available via Bower (https://github.com/abritinthebay/datejs) and another that is available only via npm (https://github.com/fent/randexp.js). I am concerned about how the users of my library would go about using it. My doubts and fears are:
how can I declare the second library as a dependency of my library when it's only available via npm?
after the user installs my library, will he/she have to be aware of the dependencies and manually include the corresponding javascript files in their index.html? I am aware of grunt-bower-install solving this issue, but I'm concerned about people who don't even use grunt at all.
would it be so bad if I just gave up on all of this and included the code of said libraries in my own code?
(bonus round): I want my library to be available as an AngularJS service, as a node.js module, and as a 'normal' javascript function. Is there a way for me to achieve this using only one repository or do I have to create 3 separate projects?
1) You need to wrap the second library in a bower package if you want it to be available to the bower package management system. npm is something entirely different and you won't be sharing between the two directly.
2) Yes, the user needs to ensure the dependencies are loaded in the right order on each page. Bower just ensures your dependencies are installed and at the correct version.
3) Generally, I'd avoid this. They're separate projects with orthogonal concerns. This is why we've created package managers like bower to begin with.
Bonus:
4) Yes, you can achieve this with one repository. Each package management service requires their own configuration files - but there's nothing wrong with having a bower.json and a package.json both sitting at the root of your repository. You just use npm and bower separately and respectively to publish to each system.
PS. This should have been more than 1 question.
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Although there are great solutions to manage dependencies on the server side, I could not find any that satisfies all my needs to have a coherent client side JavaScript dependency management workflow. I want to satisfy these five requirements:
Manage my client-side dependencies in a format similar to npm's package.json or Bower's bower.json
It should have the flexibility to point to a Git repository or actual JavaScript files (either on web or locally) in my dependency.json file for lesser known libraries (npm let you point to Git repositories)
It should minify and namespace all libraries into a single file like Ender - that's the only JavaScript file I would need to put in my <script> tag in the client side
It should have out of box support for CoffeeScript like BoxJS4 (now dead)
In the browser, I should be able to use either require style:
var $ = require('jquery');
var _ = require('underscore');
Or better yet, do headjs style:
head.js(['jquery', 'underscore', 'mylib'], function($, _, mylib) {
// Executed when all libraries are loaded
});
If no one such single tool exists, what is the best combination of tools i.e. a tool-chain that I can combine using something like Volo (or Grunt)?
I have already researched all the tools I have linked to in here and they satisfy only up to three of my requirements at best individually.
So, please don't post again about these tools. I would only accept an answer that provides a single tool that satisfies all five of my requirements or if someone posts a concrete workflow/script/working example of a toolchain of multiple such tools that also satisfies all my requirements.
RequireJS does everything you need.
My answer to this question may help you.
Example:
Client app project hierarchy:
sampleapp
|___ main.js
|___ cs.js
|___ require.js
main.js is where you initialize your client application and configure RequireJS:
require.config({
baseUrl: "/sampleapp",
paths: {
jquery: "libs/jquery", // Local
underscore: "http://underscorejs.org/underscore-min.js", // Remote
backbone: "https://github.com/documentcloud/backbone/blob/master/backbone-min.js" // Remote on GitHub
},
shim: {
backbone: {
deps: ["underscore", "jquery"] // Backbone depends on jQuery and Underscore.js
}
}
});
require(["cs!someCoffeescriptFile", "jquery", "backbone", "underscore"], function (SomeCoffeescriptFile, $, Backbone, _) {
// Dependencies are loaded...
// Execute code
});
Dependencies will use the cs plugin when prepended by "cs!". The cs plugin compiles the CoffeeScript file.
When you go in production, you can precompile your whole project with r.js.
node ./node_modules/requirejs/bin/r.js -o buildclientconfig.js
Here are your requirements:
Manage my client side dependencies in a format similar to npm's
package.json or Bower's component.json file. Different but as good!
I should have the flexibility to point to a Git repository or the actual JavaScript files (either on web or locally) in my dependency.json file for lesser-known libraries (npm lets you point to Git repositories). Yes
It should minify and namespace all libraries into a single file like Ender. That's the only JavaScript file I would need to put in my script-tag on the client side. Yes with r.js.
It should have out of box support for CoffeeScript, like Box. Yes
In the browser I can use either require style or headjs. Yes
RequireJS is the one you are looking for, I believe.
As Guillaume86, I think Hem will get you the closest to where you want to be.
In Hem, dependencies are managed using a combination of npm and Hem. Use npm
to explicitly install all of your projects external dependencies. Use Hem to specify which dependencies (both external and local) should be stitched together for you client side operations.
I created a skeleton project of this, so you can see how this would work. You can see it at Client-side Hem.
Adding dependencies
Use npm to search for a specific dependency and then modify the package.json file to ensure that the dependency is tracked in the future. Then specify the
dependency for your application in slug.json.
For example, suppose you wanted to add the CoffeeScript dependency. Just use npm to install the dependency and save it to your package.json file:
npm --save install coffee-script
Manually edit the slug.json file. Add "coffee-script" to "dependencies".
Suppose you wanted to include your own module 'bloomfilters' and it wasn't in the npm registry. You could add it to your project in the following way:
npm --save install https://github.com/dsummersl/bloomfilters/tarball/master
Manually edit the slug.json file. Add "bloomfilters" to "dependencies".
Local modules
If you want to include your own CoffeeScript or JavaScript code, you can do so by adding those files to the app/ folder. Note that in order to expose your script via the 'require' method you must make it a CommonJS module. It is very simple—see the Hem documentation.
Local files
If you want to include non-CommonJS non 'require' code, you can also stitch that by referencing your custom JavaScript or CoffeeScript code via the 'libs' list in
file slug.json.
CSS
Hem will stitch together your CSS too, if you want. See the Hem documentation.
Building
Once you have your dependencies listed, you can use hem to stitch them all together.
# Make sure all dependencies are present:
npm install .
# Make public/application.js
hem build
# See your minified js in public/application.js
Notes
Hem was meant for the Spine.js project - but you don't have to use it for that. Ignore any documentation mentioning spine as you wish...
There is also Browserify.
supports the package.json format
uses npm underneath which can use a GitHub (or any Git) repository as a package source
minifies and concatenates all dependencies into a single file.
supports CoffeeScript if you include it in your dependencies
require style all the way.
supports source maps
I'm pretty sure Hem meets your requirements (I use a personal fork with additional compilers, Jade and Stylus. It's easy to customize to your needs). It uses npm to manage dependencies.
You might want to take a look at Yeoman, which uses several techniques to help you with your requirements.
Our workflow is comprised of three tools for improving your
productivity and satisfaction when building a web app: Yo (the
scaffolding tool), Grunt (the build tool) and Bower (for package
management).
Built-in support for CoffeeScript, Compass and more. It works with r.js (RequireJS), unit testing, etc.
As for your requirements:
Bower is used for dependency management
Bower can work with local files, git://, http:// and more
Built-in support for minification and concatenation (even for your images)
Built-in support to automatically compile CoffeeScript and Compass (with LiveReload)
As stated in the build process: if you're using AMD, I will pass those modules through r.js so you don't have to.
All features:
Lightning-fast scaffolding — Easily scaffold new projects with
customizable templates (e.g HTML5 Boilerplate, Twitter Bootstrap),
RequireJS and more.
Great build process — Not only do you get
minification and concatenation; I also optimize all your image files,
HTML, compile your CoffeeScript and Compass files, if you're using
AMD, I will pass those modules through r.js so you don't have to.
Automatically compile CoffeeScript & Compass — Our LiveReload watch
process automatically compiles source files and refreshes your browser
whenever a change is made so you don't have to.
Automatically lint your scripts — All your scripts are automatically run against JSHint to ensure they're following language best-practices.
Built-in preview server — No more having to fire up your own HTTP Server. My built-in
one can be fired with just one command.
Awesome Image Optimization — I optimize all your images using OptiPNG and JPEGTran so your users can spend less time downloading assets and more time using your app.
Killer package management — Need a dependency? It's just a keystroke
away. I allow you to easily search for new packages via the
command-line (e.g. bower search jquery), install them and keep them
updated without needing to open your browser.
PhantomJS Unit Testing — Easily run your unit tests in headless WebKit via PhantomJS. When
you create a new application, I also include some test scaffolding for
your app.
Bower may suit your needs (1). And (2) for the rest you have RequireJS.
From the README:
Bower is a package manager for the web. Bower lets you easily install assets such as images, CSS and JavaScript, and manages dependencies for you.
To install a package:
bower install jquery
bower install git://github.com/maccman/package-jquery.git
bower install http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7.2.js
bower install ./repos/jquery
I just came across inject.js
Some of the features, from the project site:
Inject (Apache Software License 2.0) is a revolutionary way to manage your dependencies in a Library Agnostic way. Some of its major features include:
CommonJS Compliance in the Browser (exports.*)
View the full CommonJS Support Matrix
Cross domain retrieval of files (via easyXDM)
localStorage (load a module once)
Look at the Jam package manager. Following is the description from its homepage
For front-end developers who crave maintainable assets, Jam is a package manager for JavaScript. Unlike other repositories, we put the browser first.
It seems a lot similar to npm in how it works.
Install the package like below:
jam install backbone
Keep the packages up-to-date by executing:
jam upgrade
jam upgrade {package}
Optimize packages for production
jam compile compiled.min.js
Jam dependencies can be added in package.json file.
For complete documentation, read the Jam documentation.
There are a couple of options:
Browserify which allows you to import modules
RequireJS addresses the same problem
One that seems to be in active development is JoinJS
Component might also be of interest. It does not manage dependencies per se, but it allows you to use chopped up versions of otherwise large libraries.
Here's a solution that takes a very different approach: package up all the modules into a JSON object and require modules by reading and executing the file content without additional requests.
Pure client-side demo implementation: http://strd6.github.io/editor/
https://github.com/STRd6/require/blob/master/main.coffee.md
STRd6/require depends on having a JSON package available at runtime. The require function is generated for that package. The package contains all the files your app could require. No further HTTP requests are made because the package bundles all dependencies. This is as close as one can get to the Node.js style require on the client.
The structure of the package is as follows:
entryPoint: "main"
distribution:
main:
content: "alert(\"It worked!\")"
...
dependencies:
<name>: <a package>
Unlike Node.js a package doesn't know its external name. It is up to the package including the dependency to name it. This provides complete encapsulation.
Given all that setup here's a function that loads a file from within a package:
loadModule = (pkg, path) ->
unless (file = pkg.distribution[path])
throw "Could not find file at #{path} in #{pkg.name}"
program = file.content
dirname = path.split(fileSeparator)[0...-1].join(fileSeparator)
module =
path: dirname
exports: {}
context =
require: generateRequireFn(pkg, module)
global: global
module: module
exports: module.exports
PACKAGE: pkg
__filename: path
__dirname: dirname
args = Object.keys(context)
values = args.map (name) -> context[name]
Function(args..., program).apply(module, values)
return module
This external context provides some variable that modules have access to.
A require function is exposed to modules so they may require other modules.
Additional properties such as a reference to the global object and some metadata are also exposed.
Finally we execute the program within the module and given context.
This answer will be most helpful to those who wish to have a synchronous Node.js style require statement in the browser and are not interested in remote script loading solutions.
I use Hem with npm, and I wanted to add some additional benefits that I think weren't covered so far.
Hem has a self-contained web server (Strata) so you can develop your code without even needing to recompile. I never use hem build unless I am publishing an application.
You don't need to use Spine.js to use Hem. You can use it to compile arbitrary CoffeeScript packages if you set up file slug.json correctly. Here's one of my packages that is auto-compiled with cakefile:
TurkServer
Speaking of the above, Hem allows you to link other dependencies on your local system in with an npm link and combines them seamlessly even when you are using the Strata server. In fact, you needn't even use the cake method above; you can just link directly to CoffeeScript from dependent projects.
Hem supports eco (embedded CoffeeScript) for views and Stylus for CSS, and compiles all that, along with your CoffeeScript code, into one JavaScript file and one CSS file.
Here's a basic list for getting set up with a Spine.js, Hem, and CoffeeScript application. Feel free to ignore the Spine.js parts. In fact, sometimes I use spine app to set up a directory structure for a non-Spine.js application, then edit file slug.json to change to a different compilation structure.
Install NPM: curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh on a Unix-like system. I'll assume it's available from the command line.
Install Hem globally (npm install -g hem). Development has branched as of late, so you might want to get it straight out of GitHub, checkout a branch, and npm install -g . in that folder.
npm install -g spine.app will make spine available as a global command
spine app folder will make a Spine project called app in folder, generating the right directory structure and a bunch of skeleton files to get started.
cd to folder and edit file dependencies.json for the libraries you need. Add them to file slug.json, so that Hem knows where to find them as well.
Optional: npm link any of your local packages in development to folder node_modules, and you can add them to file slug.json for Hem (either an index.js file to include directly or an index.coffee file if you want hem to compile it.)
npm install . to download all the dependencies you just entered in.
If you take a look at the default spine configuration, there is a app/lib/setup.coffee where you require all the libraries you need from your dependencies. Examples:
# Spine.app had these as dependencies by default
require('json2ify')
require('es5-shimify')
require('jqueryify')
require('spine')
require('spine/lib/local')
require('spine/lib/ajax')
require('spine/lib/manager')
require('spine/lib/route')
# D3.js was installed via file 'dependencies.json'
require 'd3/d3.v2'
In file index.coffee, you just do require lib/setup and load the main controller for your application. In addition, you need to do require on any other classes in those other controllers. You can use spine controller something or spine model something to generate templates for controllers and models. A typical Spine controller looks like the following, using Node.js' require:
Spine = require('spine')
# Require other controllers
Payment = require('controllers/payment')
class Header extends Spine.Controller
constructor: ->
# Initialize the class
active: ->
super
#render()
render: ->
# Pull down some eco files
#html require('views/header')
# Makes this visible to other controllers
module.exports = Header
The default generated index.html file will usually be fine for loading your application, but modify as necessary. Per your requirements, it only pulls in one .js and one .css file, which you never need to modify.
Edit your stylus files as necessary in the css folder. It's a lot more flexible than CSS :)
From folder, run hem server to start a Hem server, and navigate to localhost:9294 to see your application (if you installed Hem globally). It has some hidden arguments, for example, --host 0.0.0.0 listens on all ports.
Build the rest of your application using proper MVC techniques, and use stylus for CSS and eco for views. Or don't use Spine at all, and Hem will still work great with CoffeeScript and npm. There are many examples of projects using both models.
One more thing: normally, hem server will update automatically as you update your code and save files, which makes it a cinch to debug. Running hem build will compile your application into two files, application.js, which is minified and application.css. If you run hem server after this, it will use those files and no longer update automatically. So don't hem build until you actually need a minified version of your application for deployment.
Additional references: Spine.js and Hem: Getting started
Check out Cartero if you are using Node.js or Express.js on the backend.
I'd suggest to check out the Dojo Toolkit which seems to meet most of your requirements. The one I'm not sure about is CoffeeScript.
Dojo works with modules written in the Asynchronous Module Definition (AMD) format. It has a build system with packages and you can aggregate them in one or several files (called layers). Apparently it accepts Git type repositories, and more details on the build system are on Creating Builds.
For the record, v1.9 beta is expected next month.
Dependency injection with asynchronous loading and Browserify will be another good choice, compares to RequireJS.
asynchronous-frontend-dependency-management-without-AMD
Another framework that satisfies all my criteria released recently is http://duojs.org/ (and it also supports treating other resources, like CSS, as dependencies).