Browserify v17 wishlist

• node@10 compatible streams via readable-streams@3
• module-deps module replacements without redirect module https://github.com/browserify/browserify/blob/e52476bdf6259a238c6d944dde6a9d6c85aad631/index.js#L718-L720 (includes dedupe redirects)
• better hook for plugins to interact with browserify options before being consumed internally
• support for parsing “more modern js” out of the box
• resolve all npm audit reports + add CI task
• document explicit platform support for (1) browserify (2) bundles
• public + documented API for replacing modules deep in the graph (can currently do it via js by mutating the builtins obj example)
• drop older platform support to make these improvements easier ^

this is my personal list, happy to add others

[mikeal]

Making this work without jumping through all the hoops should be a priority since Node.js native ESM is landing.

[hawkerboy7]

Hi, May I suggest the following feature?

Adding a function or argument to the require function to allow the ‘client-side’ code to determine whether or not a file (which is required) should break the bundle process if it is not found.

It allows for some files to be optional, like local settings. This feature partially already exists by using the argument ignoreMissing. But it is static and cannot be dynamically changed by your ‘client-side’ code.

This will help solve issues people have trying to use a try catch to get modules optionally, which is a mechanism that does not work for the require function since it is executed client-side after the bundle process.

var settings = {a: 1, b: 2};
var item = require("./item");
var localSettings = require.ignoreIfMissing("./local-settings");
if (localSettings !== undefined) {
 settings = localSettings;
};

OR

var settings = {a: 1, b: 2};
var item = require("./item");
var localSettings = require("./local-settings", {ignoreIfMissing: true});
if (localSettings !== undefined) {
  settings = localSettings;
};

With this setup:

• if the file item.js is not found the bundle breaks (the way Browserify already works) which is good and expected.
• if the file local-settings.js is not found the bundle would just return undefined (or null) but not break allowing you to optionally have the file local-settings.js but determined to be optional by your ‘client-side’ code.

I’ve copied the code examples from my other post here. https://github.com/browserify/browserify/issues/901#issuecomment-611471829