How to uglify output with Browserify in Gulp?

Question

I tried to uglify output of Browserify in Gulp, but it doesn't work.

gulpfile.js

var browserify = require('browserify');
var gulp = require('gulp');
var uglify = require('gulp-uglify');
var source = require('vinyl-source-stream');

gulp.task('browserify', function() {
    return browserify('./source/scripts/app.js')
        .bundle()
        .pipe(source('bundle.js'))
        .pipe(uglify()) // ???
        .pipe(gulp.dest('./build/scripts'));
});

As I understand I cannot make it in steps as below. Do I need to make in one pipe to preserve the sequence?

gulp.task('browserify', function() {
    return browserify('./source/scripts/app.js')
        .bundle()
        .pipe(source('bundle.js'))
        .pipe(uglify()) // ???
        .pipe(gulp.dest('./source/scripts'));
});

gulp.task('scripts', function() {
    return grunt.src('./source/scripts/budle.js')
        .pipe(uglify())
        .pipe(gulp.dest('./build/scripts'));
});

gulp.task('default', function(){
    gulp.start('browserify', 'scripts');
});

Answer 1

You actually got pretty close, except for one thing:

• you need to convert the streaming vinyl file object given by source() with vinyl-buffer because gulp-uglify (and most gulp plugins) works on buffered vinyl file objects

So you'd have this instead

var browserify = require('browserify');
var gulp = require('gulp');
var uglify = require('gulp-uglify');
var source = require('vinyl-source-stream');
var buffer = require('vinyl-buffer');

gulp.task('browserify', function() {
  return browserify('./source/scripts/app.js')
    .bundle()
    .pipe(source('bundle.js')) // gives streaming vinyl file object
    .pipe(buffer()) // <----- convert from streaming to buffered vinyl file object
    .pipe(uglify()) // now gulp-uglify works 
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./build/scripts'));
});

Or, you can choose to use vinyl-transform instead which takes care of both streaming and buffered vinyl file objects for you, like so

var gulp = require('gulp');
var browserify = require('browserify');
var transform = require('vinyl-transform');
var uglify = require('gulp-uglify');


gulp.task('build', function () {

  // use `vinyl-transform` to wrap the regular ReadableStream returned by `b.bundle();` with vinyl file object
  // so that we can use it down a vinyl pipeline
  // while taking care of both streaming and buffered vinyl file objects
  var browserified = transform(function(filename) {
    // filename = './source/scripts/app.js' in this case
    return browserify(filename)
      .bundle();
  });

  return gulp.src(['./source/scripts/app.js']) // you can also use glob patterns here to browserify->uglify multiple files
    .pipe(browserified)
    .pipe(uglify())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./build/scripts'));
});

Both of the above recipes will achieve the same thing.

Its just about how you want to manage your pipes (converting between regular NodeJS Streams and streaming vinyl file objects and buffered vinyl file objects)

Edit: I've written a longer article regarding using gulp + browserify and different approaches at: https://medium.com/@sogko/gulp-browserify-the-gulp-y-way-bb359b3f9623

Answer 2

Two additional approaches, taken from the vinyl-source-stream NPM page:

Given:

var source = require('vinyl-source-stream');
var streamify = require('gulp-streamify');
var browserify = require('browserify');
var uglify = require('gulp-uglify');
var gulpify = require('gulpify');
var gulp = require('gulp');

Approach 1 Using gulpify (deprecated)

gulp.task('gulpify', function() {
  gulp.src('index.js')
    .pipe(gulpify())
    .pipe(uglify())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./bundle.js'));
});

Approach 2 Using vinyl-source-stream

gulp.task('browserify', function() {
  var bundleStream = browserify('index.js').bundle();

  bundleStream
    .pipe(source('index.js'))
    .pipe(streamify(uglify()))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./bundle.js'));
});

One benefit of the second approach is that it uses the Browserify API directly, meaning that you don't have to wait for the authors of gulpify to update the library before you can.

Answer 3

you may try browserify transform uglifyify.