How to manage client-side JavaScript dependencies? [closed]

Answer 1

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 app.
• You don't need to use Spine.js to use hem, you can use it to compile arbitrary coffeescript packages if you set up slug.json correctly. Here's one of my packages that is auto-compiled with cakefile: https://github.com/HarvardEconCS/TurkServer/tree/master/turkserver-js-client
• Speaking of the above, hem allows you to link other dependencies on your local system in with 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, into one JS and one CSS file.

Here's a basic list for getting set up with a Spine, hem, coffeescript app. Feel free to ignore the Spine parts. In fact, sometimes I use spine app to set up a directory structure for a non-Spine app, then edit slug.json to change to a different compilation structure.

1. Install NPM: curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh on a *nix system. I'll assume it's available from the command line.
2. Install hem globally (npm install -g hem). Development has branched as of late so you might want to get it straight out of github (https://github.com/spine/hem), checkout a branch, and npm install -g . in that folder.
3. npm install -g spine.app will make spine available as a global command
4. 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.
5. cd to folder and edit dependencies.json for the libraries you need. Add them to slug.json so that hem knows where to find them as well.
6. Optional: npm link any of your local packages in development to node_modules, and you can add them to slug.json for hem (either an index.js to include directly or an index.coffee if you want hem to compile it.)
7. npm install . to download all the dependencies you just entered in.

8. If you take a look at the default spine config, 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 was installed via dependencies.json
   require 'd3/d3.v2'
   

9. In index.coffee, you just require lib/setup and load the main controller for your app. In addition, you need to require any other classes in those other controllers. You can use spine controller something or spine model something to generate templates for controllers and models. Typical Spine controller looks like the following, using node's 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
   

10. The default generated index.html will usually be fine for loading your app, but modify as necessary. Per your requirements, it only pulls in one js and one css file, which you never need to modify.

11. Edit your stylus files as necessary in the css folder. It's a lot more flexible than CSS :)
12. From folder, run hem server to start a hem server, and navigate to localhost:9294 to see your app. (If you installed hem globally.) It has some hidden arguments, for example --host 0.0.0.0 listens on all ports.
13. Build the rest of your app 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 app 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 app for deployment.

Additional references: Spine.js & hem getting started

Answer 2

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 https://github.com/dsummersl/clientsidehem

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 coffee-script dependency. Just use npm to install the dependency and save it to your package.json file:

1. npm --save install coffee-script
2. 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:

1. npm --save install https://github.com/dsummersl/bloomfilters/tarball/master
2. Manually edit the slug.json file. Add "bloomfilters" to "dependencies".

Local modules

If you want to include your own coffee or javascript 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 docs.

Local files

If you want to include non-CommonJS non 'require' code you can also stitch that by referencing your custom javascript or coffeescript via the 'libs' list in slug.json.

CSS

Hem will stitch together your CSS too, if you want. See the hem docs.

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 spinejs project - but you don't have to use it for that. Ignore any docs mentioning spine as you wish...

Answer 3

Look at 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 package like below

jam install backbone

keeping 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 Jam Documentation

Answer 4

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)

Answer 5

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, more details on the build system here:

http://dojotoolkit.org/documentation/tutorials/1.8/build/

For the record, v1.9 beta is expected next month.

Answer 6

Another framework that satisfies all my criterion released recently: http://duojs.org/ (and also supports treating other resources like CSS as dependencies).