Browserify with twitter bootstrap

Question

There are many similar questions including answers here on stack overflow, but none of them have worked for me, so here I am asking you guys. I appreciate everyone's time.

I recently started using gulp with browserify, and that works great. I then tried to use browserify for the front-end using: Backbone and Bootstrap3.

things are appearing to work, until I try to require the js file that comes with Bootstrap. I get an error in my chrome tools stating: jQuery is undefined.

I have attempted to shim it in, but I am very confused by the shim. I am using jQuery 2.1.1, so I should not need to shim jQuery, but it exists in the shim now, as I was desperate and trying everything. Here is my package.json and my main.js file:

--------------package.json------------------

{
  "name": "gulp-backbone",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "description": "Gulp Backbone Bootstrap",
  "main": "main.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "author": "Rob Luton",
  "license": "ISC",


  "devDependencies": {
    "jquery": "^2.1.1",
    "backbone": "^1.1.2",
    "browserify": "^4.2.1",
    "gulp": "^3.8.6",
    "vinyl-source-stream": "^0.1.1",
    "gulp-sass": "^0.7.2",
    "gulp-connect": "^2.0.6",
    "bootstrap-sass": "^3.2.0",
    "browserify-shim": "^3.6.0"
  },

  "browser": {
    "bootstrap": "./node_modules/bootstrap-sass/assets/javascripts/bootstrap.js",
    "jQuery": "./node_modules/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js"
  },

  "browserify": {
    "transform": ["browserify-shim"]
  },

  "browserify-shim": {
    "jquery": "global:jQuery", 
    "bootstrap": {
      "depends": [
        "jQuery"
      ]
    }
  }
}

------------------------- main.js ----------------------

var shim = require('browserify-shim');
$ = require('jquery');
var Backbone = require('backbone');
Backbone.$ = $;
var bootstrap = require('bootstrap');

/* the following logs fine if I comment out the bootstrap require, otherwise I get 'jQuery undefined' */

console.log(Backbone);
$(function() {
    alert('jquery works');
});

Answer 1

You shouldn't need to shim jquery that way if you've installed it with npm. The following works for a project I've been writing:

I've also learned that using npm for bootstrap is kind of a PITA. I've been using bower to install and maintain certain front-end components when they need to be shimmed like this.

package.json:

{   "name": "...",   "version": "0.0.1",   "description": "...",   "repository": {     "type": "git",     "url": "..."   },   "browser": {     "d3js": "./bower_components/d3/d3.min.js",     "select2": "./bower_components/select2/select2.min.js",     "nvd3js": "./bower_components/nvd3/nv.d3.min.js",     "bootstrap": "./node_modules/bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.js"   },   "browserify": {     "transform": [       "browserify-shim",       "hbsfy"     ]   },   "browserify-shim": {     "d3js": {       "exports": "d3",       "depends": [         "jquery:$"       ]     },     "bootstrap": {       "depends": [         "jquery:jQuery"       ]     },     "select2": {       "exports": null,       "depends": [         "jquery:$"       ]     },     "nvd3js": {       "exports": "nv",       "depends": [         "jquery:$",         "d3js:d3"       ]     }   },   "devDependencies": {     "browserify-shim": "~3.4.1",     "browserify": "~3.36.0",     "coffeeify": "~0.6.0",     "connect": "~2.14.3",     "gulp-changed": "~0.3.0",     "gulp-imagemin": "~0.1.5",     "gulp-notify": "~1.2.4",     "gulp-open": "~0.2.8",     "gulp": "~3.6.0",     "hbsfy": "~1.3.2",     "vinyl-source-stream": "~0.1.1",     "gulp-less": "~1.2.3",     "bower": "~1.3.3",     "cssify": "~0.5.1",     "gulp-awspublish": "0.0.16",     "gulp-util": "~2.2.14",     "gulp-rename": "~1.2.0",     "gulp-s3": "git+ssh://[email protected]/nkostelnik/gulp-s3.git",     "gulp-clean": "~0.2.4",     "process": "~0.7.0"   },   "dependencies": {     "backbone": "~1.1.2",     "jquery": "~2.1.0",     "lodash": "~2.4.1",     "d3": "~3.4.8",     "rickshaw": "~1.4.6",     "datejs": "~1.0.0-beta",     "moment": "~2.7.0"   } } 

js:

$ = jQuery = require('jquery'); var _ = require('lodash'); var Rickshaw = require('rickshaw'); var d3 = require('d3js'); var nvd3 = require('nvd3js'); var moment = require('moment'); require('datejs'); require('select2');  var bootstrap = require('bootstrap'); console.log(bootstrap) 

Also - one sometimes useful thing is to have browserify-shim output its diagnostics. This is what my browserify.js task looks like:

var browserify   = require('browserify'); var gulp         = require('gulp'); var handleErrors = require('../util/handleErrors'); var source       = require('vinyl-source-stream'); var process      = require('process');  process.env.BROWSERIFYSHIM_DIAGNOSTICS=1;  var hbsfy = require('hbsfy').configure({   extensions: ['html'] });  gulp.task('browserify', ['images', 'less'], function(){     return browserify({       transform: ['hbsfy', 'cssify'],             entries: ['./src/javascript/app.js'],         })         .bundle({debug: true})         .on('error', handleErrors)         .pipe(source('app.js'))         .pipe(gulp.dest('./build/')); }); 

Answer 2

There is error as I am using browserify which require the variable '$' or 'jQuery' to be defined.

adding the window to make it global resolve the error. Not sure if this would be the correct way to do, if not, let me know.

window.$ = window.jQuery = require('jquery'); var bootstrapjs = require('bootstrap-sass'); 

Answer 3

I've been wondering about this for a while. This simple solution does the job for me:

import foo from 'foo';
import bar from './bar';
import { default as $ } from "jquery";
global.$ = $;
global.jQuery = $; // This one does the trick for bootstrap!
// Boostrap's jQuery dependency only works with require, not with ES6 import!
const btp = require('bootstrap');