Okay, this is a large chunk of data representing a RequireJS configuration.Let’s break down what it means.
What is RequireJS?
RequireJS is a JavaScript module loader. It helps you organize your JavaScript code into reusable modules,manage dependencies between those modules,and load them efficiently in the browser. this is crucial for larger web applications to avoid global namespace pollution and improve performance.
Structure of the configuration
The configuration is a JavaScript object with three main sections:
paths: This section defines aliases (short names) for JavaScript files or libraries. It tells RequireJS where to find these files.shim: This section is used for libraries that don’t follow the standard RequireJS module definition format (AMD – Asynchronous Module definition). it provides details about how to load these libraries and their dependencies.map: This section defines URL mappings. It allows you to use a short alias for a URL, or to redirect a URL to a different location.
Let’s examine each section in detail:
1. paths
this is the most extensive part of the configuration. It’s a dictionary where the keys are aliases and the values are the paths to the corresponding javascript files.
* Organization: The paths are organized into logical groups, often starting with a base directory like libs/ or fly/.
* Examples:
* "jquery": "libs/jquery/jquery-1.11.3": This means that when your code require("jquery"), RequireJS will load the file libs/jquery/jquery-1.11.3.js.
* "backbone": "fly/libs/backbone-1.0.0": When you require("backbone"), it loads fly/libs/backbone-1.0.0.js.
* "underscore": "fly/libs/underscore-1.5.1": Loads fly/libs/underscore-1.5.1.js.
* "dataTables": "libs/dataTables/jquery.dataTables": loads libs/dataTables/jquery.dataTables.js.
* Versioned Paths: Notice many paths include version numbers (e.g., jquery-1.11.3, underscore-1.5.1). This is a good practice for caching and avoiding compatibility issues when updating libraries.
2. shim
This section is for libraries that don’t use the standard AMD module format. These libraries typically define their functionality by attaching things to the global window object. The shim configuration tells RequireJS how to handle these libraries.
* deps: An array of dependencies that the library requires. RequireJS will load these dependencies before loading the shimmed library.
* exports: The name of the global variable that the library creates. This allows requirejs to make the library’s functionality available as a module.
* examples:
* "liveconnection/managers/connection": {"deps":["liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4"]}: The liveconnection/managers/connection module depends on liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4.
* "liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4": {"exports":"SockJS"}: The liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4 library creates a global variable named SockJS. RequireJS will make this available as the module’s export.
* "libs/backbone.marionette": {"deps":["jquery","version!fly/libs/underscore","version!fly/libs/backbone"],"exports":"Marionette"}: Marionette depends on jQuery, Underscore, and Backbone. It exports a global variable named Marionette.
* `”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs-1.11.4″: [“jquery”,”version!libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core”,”version!fly/libs/jquery.widget”]
