JS bundles do not render without EnableOptimization set to true

Question

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but it's probably a bug inside MVC4. I wonder how can I fix this?

Working scenario

public class BundleConfig {     public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)     {         ScriptBundle scriptBundle = new ScriptBundle("~/js");         string[] scriptArray =         {             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery-1.8.2.min.js",             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery-ui-1.9.0.min.js",             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery.validate.min.js",             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.min.js",             "~/content/plugins/bootstrap/js/bootstrap.min.js",         };         scriptBundle.Include(scriptArray);         scriptBundle.IncludeDirectory("~/content/js", "*.js");         bundles.Add(scriptBundle);          BundleTable.EnableOptimizations = true;     } } 

@Scripts.Render("~/js")
Converts to (e.g. IT WORKS!)
<script src="/js?v=VeCPNK561DZp34yjmWbLrNM35Kf6gaNDl0xsMMC25BQ1"></script>

Not so much working scenario

public class BundleConfig {     public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)     {         ScriptBundle scriptBundle = new ScriptBundle("~/js");         string[] scriptArray =         {             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery-1.8.2.min.js",             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery-ui-1.9.0.min.js",             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery.validate.min.js",             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.min.js",             "~/content/plugins/bootstrap/js/bootstrap.min.js",         };         scriptBundle.Include(scriptArray);         scriptBundle.IncludeDirectory("~/content/js", "*.js");         bundles.Add(scriptBundle);          // BundleTable.EnableOptimizations = true; // I could set it to 'false' for same result, it's false by default     } } 

@Scripts.Render("~/js")
Converts to (e.g. IT DOES NOT WORK!)
(nothing, couple of empty break lines)

Answer 1

If my understanding is correct, you should define your bundles using the "non-min" JavaScript files. When you enable optimizations it will swap the non-min files for the min files for you:

public class BundleConfig {     public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)     {         ScriptBundle scriptBundle = new ScriptBundle("~/js");         string[] scriptArray =         {             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery-1.8.2.js",             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery-ui-1.9.0.js",             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery.validate.js",             "~/content/plugins/jquery/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.js",             "~/content/plugins/bootstrap/js/bootstrap.js",         };         scriptBundle.Include(scriptArray);         scriptBundle.IncludeDirectory("~/content/js", "*.js");         bundles.Add(scriptBundle);     } } 

Optimizations are set to false when debugging, but are true by default in release mode.

Answer 2

yes, It doesn't work properly with files like *.min.js.

"if you add a file to your bundle that has a name that ends in .min.js (like I did) and optimizations aren’t enabled (e.g. debug is set to true in web.config and BundleTable.EnableOptimizations has not been set to true), this file will be ignored (i.e no script include will be generated for it in your html)."

Here you can read full original response: http://blog.degree.no/2013/06/javascript-file-missing-resource-bundle-asp-net-web-optimization-framework/