make some operations on factor-bundle's partial bundles

Question

I am using gulp with browserify and factor-bundle. I have the following code:

b = browserify({
        entries: [ 'a.js', 'b.js'],
        plugin: [ [ 'factor-bundle', { outputs: [ 'build/a.js', 'build/b.js' ] } ] ]
    })
    .bundle()
    .pipe(source('bundle.js'))
    .pipe(buffer())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('/build/common'));

I want to pipe some actions (like uglify, bundle-collapser or other job) on the parial bundles ('build/a.js' and 'build/b.js'). I tried to use the method described on the factor-bundle's page:

b.plugin('factor-bundle', { outputs: [ write('x'), write('y') ] });
function write (name) {
    return concat(function (body) {
        console.log('// ----- ' + name + ' -----');
        console.log(body.toString('utf8'));
    });
}

But I don't understand the write() method and don't know how to perform uglification and how to gulp.dest the result.
Any idea? explanation?

Answer 1

The write() method returns a writable stream that allows you to pipe bundles generated by the factor-bundle plugin through further downstream transformations.

For instance, your write() method may look something like this:

var path = require('path');
var file = require('gulp-file');
var sourcemaps = require('gulp-sourcemaps');

function write (filepath) {    
    return concat(function (content) {        
        // create new vinyl file from content and use the basename of the
        // filepath in scope as its basename.
        return file(path.basename(filepath), content, { src: true })
        // uglify content
        .pipe(uglify())
        // write content to build directory
        .pipe(gulp.dest('./build/scripts'))        
    });
}

And you would use it like this:

browserify({
    entries: [ 'a.js', 'b.js'],
    plugin: [ [ 'factor-bundle', { outputs: [ write('a.js'), write('b.js') ] } ] ]
})
.bundle()
.pipe(write('common.js'))
// Could have use these instead, but it wouldn't be as DRY.
// .pipe(source('common.js'))
// .pipe(uglify())
// .pipe(gulp.dest('./build/scripts'))

Using the factor-bundle plugin affects the output of browserify after .bundle() is called. Normally, it would generate bundles as readable streams mapping to each of your entry files, then you would be able to apply further transformations to them.

Instead you will get a single readable stream that contains a bundle with the shared common modules from the supplied entry files, which I have called common.js on the example above. Then you need to handle the transfomations of the readable streams that map to each entry file separately.

In the example above I have added writable streams to the outputs array, arranged in the same order as my entry files, which receive their respective bundle as readable stream and apply further transformations to them

You could also leverage the factor.pipeline event:

var b = browserify({ ... });

b.on('factor.pipeline', function (id, pipeline) {
    pipeline.get('wrap').push(write(id));
});

b.plugin(factor);

return b.bundle().pipe(write('common.js'));

I think it is worth noting that applying further downstream work to the outputs is completely detached from the pipeline. So if you were using gulp and returned the stream from browserify, the task would have completed prematurely because it would still be performing operations on the entry files. I haven't run into issues with this yet.

Hope this helps.