Force ASP.Net MVC Bundle to render the javascript files in a certain order

Question

I am working on an ASP.Net MVC 4 application and using Bundling and minifiction to render styles and script files.

I have a script file (File A) that call function in another file (File B) , when I am using
@Scripts.Render() method it render link tag for File A before File B so it fire an error and the script not work correctly.

Is there any way to force @Script.Render() to render link tags in certain order without using separate bundle for each file????

EDIT

I am using IncludeDirectory method to include all script files in that folder

public class BundleConfig
{
    public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)
    {
        bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/js").IncludeDirectory(
                    "~/Scripts/js",
                    "*.js"));
    }
}

Answer 1

Bundling by default will add the scripts alphabetically. It will move around known libraries and add them in the correct order (it will put jQuery in first, and then jQuery-ui, for example).

The easiest way is to order the scripts yourself. One way is to move off your custom scripts to a different folder, and then add all the scripts into their own bundle in the order you want:

public class BundleConfig
{
    public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)
    {
        bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/js").IncludeDirectory(
                    "~/Scripts/js","*.js"));

        bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/myScripts").Include(
            "~/Scripts/custom/scriptB.js",
            "~/Scripts/custom/scriptA.js"));
    }
}

One other option is wildcards. This option still includes moving your custom scripts to their own folder, but only having one bundle (source):*

public class BundleConfig
{
    public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)
    {       
        bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/js").Include(
            "~/Scripts/*.js",
            "~/Scripts/custom/scriptB.js",
            "~/Scripts/custom/scriptA.js"));
    }
}

Also concerning your comment "Is there any way to force @Script.Render() to render link tags in certain order without using separate bundle for each file" -- note that separate link tags is only happening in debug mode. Once you do deploy in release mode, there will only be one link tag and one file.

Answer 2

Write your own orderer as Darin Dimitrov answer in this question: How can I specify an explicit ScriptBundle include order?

public class MyBundleOrderer : IBundleOrderer
{
    public virtual IEnumerable<FileInfo> OrderFiles(BundleContext context, IEnumerable<FileInfo> files)
    {
        //any ordering logic here

        return files;
    }
}

Answer 3

Have a look at BundleCollection.FileSetOrderList for ordering of bundeled files. I found this blog post about it: http://weblogs.asp.net/imranbaloch/archive/2012/09/30/hidden-options-of-asp-net-bundling-and-minification.aspx which explains it pretty good.

Example code for JQuery ordering:

BundleFileSetOrdering bundleFileSetOrdering1 = new BundleFileSetOrdering("jquery");
bundleFileSetOrdering1.Files.Add("jquery.js");
bundleFileSetOrdering1.Files.Add("jquery-min.js");
bundleFileSetOrdering1.Files.Add("jquery-*");
bundleFileSetOrdering1.Files.Add("jquery-ui*");
bundleFileSetOrdering1.Files.Add("jquery.ui*");
bundleFileSetOrdering1.Files.Add("jquery.unobtrusive*");
bundleFileSetOrdering1.Files.Add("jquery.validate*");
bundles.FileSetOrderList.Add(bundleFileSetOrdering1);