node.js - Browserify - How to call function bundled in a file generated through browserify in browser

Question

I am new to nodejs and browserify. I started with this link .

I have file main.js which contains this code

var unique = require('uniq');

var data = [1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6];

this.LogData =function(){
console.log(unique(data));
};

Now I Install the uniq module with npm:

 npm install uniq

Then I bundle up all the required modules starting at main.js into a single file called bundle.js with the browserify command:

browserify main.js -o bundle.js

The generated file looks like this:

(function e(t,n,r){function s(o,u){if(!n[o]){if(!t[o]){var a=typeof require=="function"&&require;if(!u&&a)return a(o,!0);if(i)return i(o,!0);throw new Error("Cannot find module '"+o+"'")}var f=n[o]={exports:{}};t[o][0].call(f.exports,function(e){var n=t[o][1][e];return s(n?n:e)},f,f.exports,e,t,n,r)}return n[o].exports}var i=typeof require=="function"&&require;for(var o=0;o<r.length;o++)s(r[o]);return s})({1:[function(require,module,exports){
var unique = require('uniq');

var data = [1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6];

this.LogData =function(){
console.log(unique(data));
};

},{"uniq":2}],2:[function(require,module,exports){
"use strict"

function unique_pred(list, compare) {
  var ptr = 1
    , len = list.length
    , a=list[0], b=list[0]
  for(var i=1; i<len; ++i) {
    b = a
    a = list[i]
    if(compare(a, b)) {
      if(i === ptr) {
        ptr++
        continue
      }
      list[ptr++] = a
    }
  }
  list.length = ptr
  return list
}

function unique_eq(list) {
  var ptr = 1
    , len = list.length
    , a=list[0], b = list[0]
  for(var i=1; i<len; ++i, b=a) {
    b = a
    a = list[i]
    if(a !== b) {
      if(i === ptr) {
        ptr++
        continue
      }
      list[ptr++] = a
    }
  }
  list.length = ptr
  return list
}

function unique(list, compare, sorted) {
  if(list.length === 0) {
    return []
  }
  if(compare) {
    if(!sorted) {
      list.sort(compare)
    }
    return unique_pred(list, compare)
  }
  if(!sorted) {
    list.sort()
  }
  return unique_eq(list)
}

module.exports = unique
},{}]},{},[1])

After including bundle.js file into my index.htm page, how do I call logData function ??

Answer 1

The key part of bundling standalone modules with Browserify is the --s option. It exposes whatever you export from your module using node's module.exports as a global variable. The file can then be included in a <script> tag.

You only need to do this if for some reason you need that global variable to be exposed. In my case the client needed a standalone module that could be included in web pages without them needing to worry about this Browserify business.

Here's an example where we use the --s option with an argument of module:

browserify index.js --s module > dist/module.js

This will expose our module as a global variable named module.
Source.

Update: Thanks to @fotinakis. Make sure you're passing --standalone your-module-name. If you forget that --standalone takes an argument, Browserify might silently generate an empty module since it couldn't find it.

Hope this saves you some time.