Added Bundle Node Module Support

[erisu]

Platforms affected

electron

Motivation and Context

Support Bundling Node Modules

fixes: #52

Description

This PR is a possible solution to support the bundling of node_modules inside the Electron built package.

The concept is that when working on an app, we add specific npm packages (npm i -S <package>) to the root directory of the Cordova project as a dependencies, not devDependencies.

For example, if we wanted to use lodash:

1. Config the Cordova Project to support nodeIntegration.

Follow these guides:

• Customizing the Application's Window Options
• How to support Node.js and Electron APIs?

2. Install the lodash npm node modules.

npm i -S lodash

Now what happens?:

• During testing with the cordova run electron --nobuild command, it will spawn an Electron process and use the lodash modules from <project_root>/node_modules/lodash.

  This is how it operated before this PR.

• When building, the Cordova build process will copy the Cordova's project dependencies from package.json to the built application's package.json. During the build process, it will npm install all the modules within the app directory that is packaged.

  This was added from this PR.

Note: With the current Cordova CLI, all platforms are added as dependencies. IT SHOULD BE ok to manually move these dependencies to devDependencies. These dependencies contain only the build tools and templates and are not needed in your bundled app. All it will do is increase the application's size.

Testing

• npm t

Checklist

• I've run the tests to see all new and existing tests pass
• I added automated test coverage as appropriate for this change
• Commit is prefixed with (platform) if this change only applies to one platform (e.g. (android))
• If this Pull Request resolves an issue, I linked to the issue in the text above (and used the correct keyword to close issues using keywords)
• I've updated the documentation if necessary

[brodycj]

I would personally favor an approach that works the same way across all platforms.

For example, we could use a tool such as Babel, Webpack, or Typescript to transform the sources and combine them into a bundle for each platform.

P.S. Thanks to @erisu for your efforts on this one.

[erisu]

@brodybits we are talking about bundling all node modules that can also include executable binaries.

[brody]

@erisu I think you meant @brodybits 🙈

[erisu]

Sorry @brody, you are correct. I was typing this on my phone 🙈 Thank you.

[GedasGa]

Look good to me. However, I was wondering, maybe the DOCUMENTATION.md file should be submitted as a separate PR.

[tiptronic]

As soon as this is merged I am volunteering to see if it works :) -> but that's a big improvment!
Thx @erisu

[codecov-io]

Codecov Report

Merging #54 into master will not change coverage.
The diff coverage is 100%.

@@          Coverage Diff          @@
##           master    #54   +/-   ##
=====================================
  Coverage     100%   100%           
=====================================
  Files          14     14           
  Lines         605    612    +7     
=====================================
+ Hits          605    612    +7

Impacted Files	Coverage Δ
bin/templates/cordova/lib/prepare.js	100% <100%> (ø)	⬆️
bin/templates/cordova/lib/PackageJsonParser.js	100% <100%> (ø)	⬆️

---

Continue to review full report at Codecov.

Legend - Click here to learn more
Δ = absolute <relative> (impact), ø = not affected, ? = missing data
Powered by Codecov. Last update 639b0c7...f447b37. Read the comment docs.

[janpio]

PR sounds awesome.

Note: With the current Cordova CLI, all platforms are added as dependencies. IT SHOULD BE ok to manually move these dependencies to devDependencies. These dependencies contain only the build tools and templates and are not needed in your bundled app. All it will do is increase the application's size.

Should this be changed in Cordova CLI?

However, I was wondering, maybe the DOCUMENTATION.md file should be submitted as a separate PR.

Where did the documentation for this feature end up?

[erisu]

@janpio

Note: With the current Cordova CLI, all platforms are added as dependencies. IT SHOULD BE ok to manually move these dependencies to devDependencies. These dependencies contain only the build tools and templates and are not needed in your bundled app. All it will do is increase the application's size.

Should this be changed in Cordova CLI?

Yes, the long-term solution on how Cordova install platforms and plugins though CLI will need changing within CLI/fetch. I recall from a conversation with others that this type of change would be considered major but also desirable.

This is why I mention the manual process for an immediate solution while we work on the long-term.

However, I was wondering, maybe the DOCUMENTATION.md file should be submitted as a separate PR.

Where did the documentation for this feature end up?

The documentation he was referring to that was in this PR was not exactly only for this feature. There was an example that explains how to enable nodeIntegration, but the example had a mistake. Though nodeIntegration is partly related and needed, I went ahead and commit it under an update PR that I had been working on anyways.

• nodeIntegration Example Mistake
• DOCUMENTATION.md Update PR
  • Related cordova-docs Update PR

As an end note on documentation, maybe I can add within this PR a doc update specifically talking about the feature strictly.