Bundle Modules for the Browser

A no-config tool to bundle your apps into a single file using a remote Webpack configuration that spares you both the need for redundant local Webpack configuration files and an enormous glut of libraries in the node_modules directory of every project.

v0.1.7

Webpack is an incredible toolkit for compiling and transpiling Node modules for use in the browser. The only drawback, I've found, is that keeping the configuration files and their many dependencies in every local project directory can lead to a lot of bloat in node_modules and requires a fair degree of tedious copying and pasting when many projects use essentially the same configuration.

This module generates a configuration file outside the project and returns a packaged file for the browser in the project directory.

Installation

npm install -g bundle-module

Or, for the edge version:

npm install -g wilson428/bundle-module

Usage

Command Line

# cd /path/to/project
bundle-module --name=myproject

Node

const bundleModule = require('bundle-module');

bundleModule({
	entry: './myApp/index.js',
	filename: 'myApp.script.js',
	env: 'node',
	output_dir: './dist'
});

This basic usage will create a dist directory in your project with a file called myproject.js that can be included on a Web page in a single <script> tag. The project itself can include any local dependencies you wish -- D3, for example.

Command-line options

Option	Purpose	Default
--env	The target environment for the build. Options are node or browswer	browser
--version, -v	Return the version and exit	false
--entry	The root Node file in your project to send to Webpack for compiling.	index.js
--output_dir	The name of the local directory to contain the compiled file	dist
--filename	The name used in the compiled file. There's no need to include .js.	bundle
--name	The name of the global variable when exporting for the browser.	name (see above)
--min, --minified	Whether to minify the output, which will automatically have the name [filename].min.js	false
--watch	Whether to recompile after every file change	false
--verbose	Whether to output the (long) configuration file	false

Development vs. Production mode

Using --min defaults to production mode and generates bundle-min.js while omitting it builds an unminified, source-mapped bundle.js (whatever name you specified with --name instead of bundle). To save time, I recommend the following scripts in your package.json for a given app:

"scripts": {
	"build": "bundle-module --entry=./debug.js --name=script --env=node --output_dir=.",
	"build_verbose": "bundle-module --entry=./debug.js --name=script --env=node --output_dir=. --verbose",
	"watch": "bundle-module --entry=./debug.js --name=script --env=node --output_dir=. --watch",
	"minify": "bundle-module --entry=./debug.js --name=script-min --env=node --output_dir=. --min"
}

Or, if you want to build a distribution script to be included as a global variable via a <script> element, use --env=browser (or leave it out). The global variable will be give the --name parameter.

Supported loaders

At present, bundle-module will understand the following file types when included with import or require. If you commonly use a filetype that requires a different loader, such as a different templating engine, by all means let me know or, better yet, send me a PR!

• .js: Javascript files are automatically transpiled with Babel, allowing you to write your module in ES6.
• .json: Node understands JSON imports by default.
• .css, .scss, .less: Includes the postcss-loader loader with the postcssPresetEnv plugin for autoprefixing.
• .html, .ejs: You can either require plain HTML or Embedded JavaScript templates.
• .csv, .dsv, tsv: You can require any sort of delimited data file, which will appear in the code like a JSON file.
• .png, .jpe?g, .gif: Include images as base64 data. Be mindful of filesize.