CommonJs Browser Wrap

Wrap common-js require statements to export as a iife() wrapped module.

Basically, it creates one iffe() that you may add a export of some kind to (however, you choose). All are wrapped for use by a internal loader (local to the iife function). It is like a poor-man's browsify but better much, much better for some use cases.

Install

npm install --save-dev gulp-commonjs-browser-wrap

Or

yarn add --dev gulp-commonjs-browser-wrap

Example use

const gulp = require('gulp');
const concat = require('gulp-concat');

gulp.task('build', ()=>gulp.src(['.lib/*.js'])
    .pipe(concat('browser.js'))
    .pipe(commonjsBrowserWrap({
    	type:'moduleWrap',
    	main:['./lib/index.js']
    }))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./build'))
);

In the example above we take all of the js files in the /lib directory and wrap each module. These modules are then concatenated together using gulp-concat; the whole thing is then wrapped in an iife. We tell the plugin to load /lib/index.js module in the iife closure. It is assumed that /lib/index.js has some sort of browser detection to export everything, for example:

try {
	if (window) window.myModule = exports;
} catch (err) {
	// Not in a browser do nothing
}

Why not use browsify?

Browsify is awesome, this module is not meant to somehow better it. In some circumstances you don't want a massive build process involving browsify. You might not want a module loader in the browsers or complicated build for programmers wishing to use your module.

All of the above are often useful or necessary. However, if you need a simple gulp process that plugs into your current build. If you have have a module with both front-end and back-end components and you want to export a standalone browser module (without, much export fluff) then this module is designed to fill that gap.

Using a global loader

If your module wants to load some modules from a global commonjs loader then you can use the includeGlobal option. If this is set then the global loader is used as a fallback when a locally wrapped version is not found.

gulp.task('build', ()=>gulp.src(['.lib/*.js'])
    .pipe(concat('browser.js'))
    .pipe(commonjsBrowserWrap({
    	type:'moduleWrap',
    	main:['./lib/index.js'],
    	includeGlobal: true
    }))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./build'))
);

Inserting extra code

Extra code can be inserted before or after the moduleWrap by using the insertAtTop and insertAtBottom option.

gulp.task('build', ()=>gulp.src(['.lib/*.js'])
    .pipe(concat('browser.js'))
    .pipe(commonjsBrowserWrap({
    	type:'moduleWrap',
    	main:['./lib/index.js'],
    	includeGlobal: true,
    	insertAtTop: 'require("babel-polyfill");'
    }))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./build'))
);

Automatically including requires

We've written a companion vinyl-adaptor, Vinyl CommonJs Dependencies that is compatible with gulp. It can pull all the dependencies of a main module into the gulp stream for processing.

Beta status

This module is definitely beta. It works well and does everything it says on the tin. However, it is still in active development. If you have PRs, we'd be delighted to look at them.