Javascript Module Builder

Tool for building javascript libraries by processing special directives in code:

// #directive argument

/*
    #multiline-directive
        argument1,
        argument2
*/

#import directive

Declares module or library dependency. Syntax:

#import module1[ as alias1][,... moduleN[ as aliasN]]

All modules are running in separate local scopes. They have two options to export values: to define local variable with same name as module (good option) or to define global variable (bad option).

For example, if we building lib.js:

// #import some_module

var value = module.doSomething();
console.log(value);

And some_module.js is:

var some_module = {
    doSomething: function () {
        return Math.random();
    }
};

Then resulting code is:

(function () {
    var __module_0 = (function () {

// begin: some_module.js
var some_module = {
    doSomething: function () {
        return Math.random();
    }
};
// end: some_module.js

        if (typeof some_module !== 'undefined') { return some_module }
    }());

    (function (some_module) {

// begin: lib.js
var value = some_module.doSomething();
console.log(value);
// end: lib.js

    }(__module_0));
}());

Packages

Modules can be grouped into packages:

lib.js
example_package/
    ^.js
    example_module_A.js
    example_module_B.js

^.js is root package module. It indicates that folder is package and contains code of module associated with package name.

lib.js:

/*
    #import
        example_package,
        example_package.example_module_A,
        example_package.example_module_B as B
*/

// variable names are:

example_package;    // value from example_package/^.js
example_module_A;   // value from example_package/example_module_A.js
B;                  // value from example_package/example_module_B.js

Import paths can be relative:

example_package/^.js:

// #import .example_module_B
// same as:
// #import example_package.example_module_B

And resulting library will be:

(function () {
    var __module_0 = (function () {
            // example_package/example_module_B.js code
        }()),
        __module_1 = (function (example_module_B, example_module_B) {
            // example_package/^.js code
        }(__module_0, __module_0)),
        __module_2 = (function () {
            // example_package/example_module_A.js code
        }());

    (function (example_package, example_module_A, B) {
        // lib.js code
    }(__module_0, __module_2, __module_1));
}());

Exported modules

Module source can be built with plain javascript instead of directives. This can be useful for building json configuration from external sources. Exported module should contain function named dump and filename ending with .export.js.

For instance build_date.export.js:

function dump() {
    return 'var build_date = ' + JSON.stringify(String(new Date())) + ';';
}

lib.js:

// #import build_date

window.getBuildDate = function () {
    alert('This library was built on ' + build_date);
};