require brings require to the browser

Node's require() is the de facto javascript dependency statement.

npm is the de facto javascript module manager.

require brings both of them to the browser.

tl;dr

"Just give me some code that runs"

mkdir app; cd app
echo '{ "name":"app" }' > package.json
sudo npm install require
sudo npm install raphael
curl -O https://raw.github.com/gist/975866/little_server.js
curl -O https://raw.github.com/gist/975868/little_client.js
node little_server.js

Now go to http://localhost:8080

Install

sudo npm install -g require

Run

Start dev server

require serve ./example --port 1234 --host localhost

In your HTML:

<script src="//localhost:1234/require/client"></script>

This is like calling require('client') from inside ./example. Read more on node's require path resolution

Compile

(You'll want to do this before you deploy to production)

require compile ./example/client.js > client.min.js

Use programmatically

In node:

require('require/server').listen(1234)

or mount it on an http server you're already running

var server = http.createServer(function(req, res) { })
require('require/server').mount(server)
server.listen(8080, 'localhost')

or, as connect middleware

connect.createServer(
    connect.static(__dirname + '/example'),
    require('require/server').connect()
)

Compile programmatically:

var compiler = require('require/compiler')
console.log(compiler.compile('./example/client.js'))
console.log(compiler.compileCode('require("./example/client")'))

The compiler supports all the options of https://github.com/mishoo/UglifyJS, e.g.

compiler.compile('./example/client.js', { beautify:true, ascii_only:true })

TODO

v0.5.0

• Major cleanup
• Remove old unused functionality
• Load modules in parallel (faster dev mode)

v0.4.9

• Make the max length of lines an option and make it quite short by default for easier debugging

v0.4.7

• Remove default port and host - just use what the current page uses by default
• Treat Android devices as mobile, with regards to loading resources in one big response rather than individual requests
• Now works if script include put in head

v0.4.6

• Add server.setOpts and server.handleRequest

v0.4.5

• Set the mimetype of script files correctly
• Remove node_modules directory - use dependencies in package.json instead
• Implement addPath and addFile for specifying custom path resolutions
• Implement addReplacement for replacing code during dev serving or compilation
• Implement dontAddClosureForModule and dontIncludeModule for compiler
• Remove dependency on std.js
• Add usePagePort option to make module requests go to the host/port of the page it's served on, rather than the host/port passed in to listen(port, ...)

v0.4.4

• Import js files directly under node_modules correctly, e.g. ./node_modules/foo.js

v0.4.3

• Fix import of socket.io browser npm module
• Enable nested npm module imports by reimplementing node's require.resolve algorithm

v0.4.2

• Use uglifyjs to compress JS
• Synchronous compilation API
• Remove --paths option. Search for modules exactly like require.resolve does
• Greatle simplify Readme instructions
• Use util.resolve in compiler, minimizing repeated code
• Implement require.mount(server, opts) - mounts itself onto an existing http server
• Implement require.connect(opts) - connect middleware
• Implement require.isRequireRequest - checks if an http request is for the require server

v0.4.1

• Consult package.json's "main" field when resolving modules in the compiler
• Fix bug where modules starting with (function() { ... }) would throw in their compiled form
• Clearer compiler usage example in example/compile.js
• Better error messages when a module cannot be found during compilation

v0.4.0

• New API
• New command line utility
• New documentation

v0.3.2

• Improved command line tool
• new API: single method require('require/compiler').compile(<code | file path>, <compilation level 0 | 1 | 2 | 3>, <callback>)
• allow chaining of methods on the require server
• alert an error message client-side when a module is not found (rather than crash the process :)

v0.3.1

• Fix context bug in delay
• Change compiled instances of require._[PATH] to require[PATH]. require is simply a hash of module paths.
• Add setRoot API
• Improved docs in README
• Binary request-dev --port 1234 --host localhost ./path

v0.3.0

• Make a standalone server for dev mode

v0.2.8

• Don't leave require.paths modified after require.resolve. Add paths right before they're needed, and remove paths after.

v0.2.7

• Improve path resolution

v0.2.6

• Improve the order in which we try to load modules

v0.2.5

• Fix compilation order for main

v0.2.1

• A development server that serves requires files in dev mode

v0.2.0

• latest version published on npm

v0.1.13

• better file layout - bin/ lib/
• created bin/compile to compile files
• created bin/compress to compile and compress files
• improved readability of compiled files by flattening the require hierarchy
• replace module names with short names, e.g. "1", "2", etc

v0.1.12

• Support module path names in the compiler, e.g. require('require/compiler')

v0.1.11

• Fix: compiler now resolves module/index.js paths correctly

v0.1.10

• Allow for a node server to server require using require('require').toString()

v0.1.9

• It's no longer required to add id="browser-require" to a script tag in order to load the main module automatically

v0.1.8

• Rename to require

v0.1.7

• Publish with npm

v0.1.6

• Fix: Variables declared inside of require.js are no longer visible to imported modules
• Remove the "root" configuration parameter added in v0.1.1. You cannot modify the root in node.

v0.1.5

• Allow for a file inside of a folder to import the folder's index file with require('./')

v0.1.4

• Allow modules with circular dependencies to reference each other

v0.1.3

• Don't get stuck loading circular dependencies

v0.1.2

• Support index.js - if a module is not found at location, look for it at location/index.js

v0.1.1

• Support the "root" configuration parameter
• Fix: consecutive slashes get replaced with a single slash as opposed to no slash

v0.1.0 First version, implements node's require() statement for the browser