modulr is a CommonJS module implementation
in Ruby for client-side JavaScript. It accepts a singular file as input (the program) on
which is does static analysis to recursively resolve its dependencies.
The program, its dependencies and a small, namespaced JavaScript library are
concatenated into a single js file with optional minification through the YUI Compressor. This improves load times by
minimizing HTTP requests.
Further load time performance improvements are made possible by the built-in
lazy evaluation
option. Modules are delivered as JavaScript strings--instead of functions--and are
evaluated only when required.
The bundled JavaScript library provides each module with the necessary require
function and exports and module free variables. In its full version, the bundled
library also provided support for the require.ensure (async module requires) and require.define (module transport) methods.
modulr can also be used as a build tool for JavaScript code that will be executed in a regular JS environment. In this case, the global variable defined by the --global-export option is assigned the exports of the main CommonJS module and asynchronous module requires are not supported.
Finally, modulr allows you to create handy dependency graphs.
$ [sudo] gem install modulr
modulr is available as a Ruby library or as a command-line utility (modulrize).
To process a JavaScript source file, just run:
$ modulrize filename.js > output.js
You can also simultaneously process multiples files like so:
$ modulrize filename.js other_filename.js > output.js
Options are as follows:
-o, --output=FILE Write the output to FILE. Defaults to stdout.
-r, --root=DIR Set DIR as root directory. Defaults to the directory containing FILE.
--lazy-eval [MODULES] Enable lazy evaluation of all JS modules or of those specified by MODULES.
MODULES accepts a comma-separated list of identifiers.
--minify Minify output using YUI Compressor.
--global-export[=GLOBAL_VAR] If GLOBAL_VAR is specified and only one module is being processed, exports it to the GLOBAL_VAR global variable.
If GLOBAL_VAR is specified and multiple modules are being processed, exports each one of them as a property of GLOBAL_VAR.
If GLOBAL_VAR isn't specified, exports the module to global variables corresponding to their identifier.
--main-module=MAIN_MODULE Set the identifier of the main module (available through `require.main`).
--sync Load all dependencies synchronously.
--dependency-graph[=OUTPUT] Create a dependency graph of the module.
-h, --help Show this message.
Minification options (these are forwarded to YUI Compressor without the "minify-" prefix):
--minify-disable-optimizations Disable all micro optimizations.
--minify-nomunge Minify only, do not obfuscate.
--minify-verbose Display informational messages and warnings.
--minify-line-break COLUMN Insert a line break after the specified column number.
--minify-preserve-semi Preserve all semicolons.
To run the specs, first clone the Git repository then grab the CommonJS specs, included as a Git submodule, by running:
$ git clone git://github.com/codespeaks/modulr.git
$ cd modulr
$ git submodule init
$ git submodule update
Mozilla's SpiderMonkey is required
and the js command line executable must be available on the load path (try which js).
You can run all the specs by issuing:
$ rake spec
Alternatively, a list of comma-separated specs can be specified through the SPECS
environment variable (see vendor/commonjs/tests/modules/1.0) for a comprehensive
list of available specs).
$ rake spec SPECS=absolute,transitive