Shortcomings of bundles features

[ghost]

The bundles feature which was introduced in version 2.1.10 sounds very useful, but unfortunately it is a bit misleading.

I would expect this feature to work in the following way:
Assume a bundle is defined as
bundles: {
"primary": ["main", "util"]
}

When making a require for "primary", modules main and util should be passed in the same order as they are declared in the bundle. Example:
define(["primary"], function(main, util){})

Bundles should also work with deps. Example:
deps: ["primary"] should load main and util.

Bundles should work with r.js optimizer. Example:
include: ["primary"] should include modules main and util into the optimized file.

With these adjustments, the bundles feature would be really useful for removing code (modules list) duplication in large multi-page projects. You could define the bundles once and then reuse this configuration for multiple purposes.

[ghost]

By the way, I am not the only person who wished it worked this way. See https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/requirejs/MqJouSkI1U0

[jrburke]

I apologize for the confusing docs. I just pushed a change to the API doc to try to clarify: it is just a way to locate where to find a module for loading, it does not automatically bind module exports to some other module export. There are no plans to offer such a feature.

There is the sugar syntax that fits some needs, but that is the extent of the capabilities beyond the explicit dependency array.

[ghost]

Thanks for clarifying the docs. But what do you think about suggestions to enhance the bundles functionality as described in this issue? Since this functionality is not supported yet, it should not be a breaking change.

[jrburke]

That feature request goes against the explicit dependency goals for modules: a module should declare its dependencies and its exports itself. The feature request would be misleading if someone asks for 'primary' but did not set up the configuration call.

Plus, this sort of feature is not planned for ES6 modules, so I do not want to add anything that makes it harder to convert up to them later.

It is possible to get a similar effect to the feature request by just doing this after a config call, but before anything loads:

define('primary', function(require) {
  return {
    util: require('util'),
    main: require('main')
  };
});

require(['primary'], function(primary) {
  // primary.util, primary.main
  // with destructuring assignment:
  var { util, main } = primary;
});

So a bit more wordy, but stays with explicit dependency goals.

[isochronous]

Wow, until I saw that last line I didn't even know you could do that in Javascript. Learn something new every day!

[neonstalwart]

@isochronous be careful... for most practical purposes you can't do that (yet).