Browser-pack-flat NPM

browser-pack-flat

Bundle browserify modules into a single scope, a la rollup.

Caveats:

Modules are executed fully, one after another, instead of inline. This is a potential difference from Node.js and the default browserify behaviour. Usually this does not matter, but rarely the order that some things are executed in may change.
This rewrites require() calls to simple variable assignments. If a module wraps require() somehow it probably will not work. In practice this is quite rare.
Using factor-bundle to split output code into separate files will not work with this plugin.

Install

npm install --save-dev browser-pack-flat

Usage

browserify /path/to/app.js | browser-unpack | browser-pack-flat

Or as a plugin:

browserify /path/to/app.js -p browser-pack-flat

The plugin replaces the browser-pack module used by default by browserify.

With the Node API:

var browserify = require('browserify')
var packFlat = require('browser-pack-flat')

browserify({ entries: './src/app.js' })
  .plugin(packFlat, { /* options */ })
  .bundle()
  .pipe(fs.createWriteStream('bundle.js'))

What exactly?

browserify uses browser-pack to output a bundle. browser-pack uses a small require-like runtime and wraps modules in functions to get a module loading behaviour that's almost identical to Node.js. However this resolution can take a few milliseconds across an entire bundle.

Input:

var unique = require('uniq');

var data = [1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6];

console.log(unique(data));

With browser-pack, this bundle would output:

(function e(t,n,r){function s(o,u){if(!n[o]){if(!t[o]){var a=typeof require=="function"&&require;if(!u&&a)return a(o,!0);if(i)return i(o,!0);var f=new Error("Cannot find module '"+o+"'");throw f.code="MODULE_NOT_FOUND",f}var l=n[o]={exports:{}};t[o][0].call(l.exports,function(e){var n=t[o][1][e];return s(n?n:e)},l,l.exports,e,t,n,r)}return n[o].exports}var i=typeof require=="function"&&require;for(var o=0;o<r.length;o++)s(r[o]);return s})({1:[function(require,module,exports){
var unique = require('uniq');

var data = [1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6];

console.log(unique(data));
},{"uniq":2}],2:[function(require,module,exports){
"use strict"

/* -- snip -- */

function unique(list, compare, sorted) {
  if(list.length === 0) {
    return list
  }
  if(compare) {
    if(!sorted) {
      list.sort(compare)
    }
    return unique_pred(list, compare)
  }
  if(!sorted) {
    list.sort()
  }
  return unique_eq(list)
}

module.exports = unique

},{}]},{},[1]);

browser-pack-flat instead rewrites require() calls and module.exports assignments to simple variables, and sorts the modules so that the module that would be executed first, is at the top of the bundle. It doesn't need a runtime in most cases, and no function calls to execute modules.

(function(){
"use strict"

/* -- snip -- */

function unique(list, compare, sorted) {
  if(list.length === 0) {
    return list
  }
  if(compare) {
    if(!sorted) {
      list.sort(compare)
    }
    return unique_pred(list, compare)
  }
  if(!sorted) {
    list.sort()
  }
  return unique_eq(list)
}

var _$unique_2 = unique

var _$main_1 = {};
/* removed: var _$unique_2 = require('uniq'); */;

var data = [1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6];

console.log(_$unique_2(data));
}());

Instead of require('uniq'), the main module simply refers to _$unique_2, which is the exports value of the uniq module. The only function wrapper is the outermost one, which prevents variables from leaking into the window (global scope).

Sometimes it's not possible to sort modules in their execution order, because in the Node.js module system, a module can require another module that requires the first module: a circular dependency. browser-pack-flat addresses this with a small runtime, to lazily execute modules that are part of a circular dependency chain. This works similarly to how the Node.js module system works, and to how the standard browser-pack works too. Instead of rewriting require()s to variables and module.exports to a variable assignment, in "circular modules" browser-pack-flat adds a function wrapper. When a circular module is require()d, browser-pack-flat will call the function wrapper, which executes the module and caches the exports.

Below, a.js depends on b.js, and b.js depends on a.js:

// app.js
console.log(
  require('./a')()
)
// a.js
var b = require('./b')
module.exports = function () {
  return b()
}
// b.js
module.exports = function () {
  return require('./a').toString()
}

With browser-pack-flat, this becomes:

(function(){
var createModuleFactory = function createModuleFactory(factory) {
  var module; return function () { if (!module) { module = { exports: {} }; factory(module, module.exports) } return module.exports }
};
var _$a_1 = createModuleFactory(function (module, exports) {
var b = _$b_3()
module.exports = function () {
  return b()
}

});
var _$b_3 = createModuleFactory(function (module, exports) {
module.exports = function () {
  return _$a_1().toString()
}

});
var _$app_2 = {};
console.log(
  _$a_1()()
)

}());

The createModuleFactory helper returns the exports of the module it wraps, evaluating the module on the first call. Instead of replacing require('./a') with _$a_1 like browser-pack-flat normally would, it replaced it with _$a_1().

browser-pack-flat does some more things like rewriting top-level variables in modules in case there is another variable with the same name in another module, but that's most of the magic!

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