Provide scope for require() or require.noConflict()

[robbles]

I'm using browserify to compile code for widgets and libraries that can be included on other people's pages. Ideally, it would be nice to avoid conflicts with pages that use some kind of CommonJS or AMD loading using either a standard noConflict([parent object]) method or an option provided to browserify. I can't trust publishers using this code to have a compatible implementation of require, so browserify's version needs to be sandboxed from theirs.

Basically, I want the require method to be attached to a global object of my choice, and for all bundles to use this reference somehow instead of window.require - an example of this can be found in the easyXDM library.

@substack I know you've worked some related ideas with substack/yarnify - any suggestions on how this could work? I think browserify could be incredibly useful for bundling third-party JS libraries if this is possible.

[dominictarr]

browserify falls back (and doesn't overwrite) any pre-existing 'require' that is in scope.
so, this shouldn't actually be a problem.

Also, browserify doesn't add anything to the global scope unless it is explicitly told to. (as far as I can tell)

are you sure this is actually a problem? are you using the latest browserify?

[robbles]

I agree that it's not a problem in most cases. I'm mainly worried about trying to use https://github.com/substack/node-browserify#multiple-bundles when there is an incompatible require function defined on the page.

By "incompatible", I mean the page defines a window.require function that doesn't load modules in the expected way (such as an asset loader for a game, or some other utility function). If this is defined by the page in between the evaluation of a bundle and another file that uses it, it'll break.

I can probably work around this by ensuring all browserified files execute together and in the right order, but it would be nice if I could specify a context or an alternate name for require to avoid the problem entirely.

[robbles]

Also, as of browserify v2.12.5, it appears to overwrite an existing window.require. I'm assuming it's saving a reference to the original so that it can load external modules though.

[dominictarr]

the best way would be to wrap encapsulate that thing in a closure, (or the browserify bundles)

';(function (require) {' + bundle + '})(' + noConflict + ');'

it's getting complicated to add this as a feature to browserify, you should make another module to do this and publish on npm!

[ghost]

I think the best way to handle this right now is to just wrap the bundle output.