Have an alias (e.g. PDFJS or PDFJS2) instead of window['pdfjs-dist/build/pdf'] or window.pdfjsDistBuildPdf

#9493 removed the PDFJS global, so now the only way to access the PDF.js library from a browser in a non-module context (i.e. not AMD or CommonJS) is through window['pdfjs-dist/build/pdf'] or window.pdfjsDistBuildPdf.

This is an unfriendly name, and seemingly just an artefact of the implementation. Can we use a global such as PDFJS, or if you wish, PDFJS2?

The name originates from here: https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/blob/6662985a20b769d7e78e7cf4486eb6b7130f0cf0/gulpfile.js#L228-L235 https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/blob/6662985a20b769d7e78e7cf4486eb6b7130f0cf0/gulpfile.js#L241-L253

The window['pdfjs-dist/build/pdf'] export is done by Webpack, and can probably be configured by replacing the library string with an object, and set root to the desired name.

The window.pdfjsDistBuildPdf export is generated by our custom replaceJSRootName function. An alternative to reconfiguring Webpack is to add an extra parameter to the replaceJSRootName function, so that the caller defines jsName instead of auto-generating it.

I would personally be in favor of configuring Webpack to use the custom name, because I cannot imagine anyone wanting to use window['pdfjs-dist/build/pdf'] to import the JS variable.

Relevant Webpack documentation for configuring the library:

• https://webpack.js.org/configuration/output/#output-library (The documentation does not have any explicit information for configuring the UMD target, so I digged in the source and found the following)
• https://github.com/webpack/webpack/blob/41bb63ad69d0f32c042e74e732cb045b5966c452/schemas/WebpackOptions.json#L484-L516 - the schema that the configuration needs to adhere to.
• https://github.com/webpack/webpack/blob/41bb63ad69d0f32c042e74e732cb045b5966c452/test/configCases/library/umd/webpack.config.js (example)

[brendandahl]

I missed that we have three export like things now. In light of that, I’m in favor of Jonas’ suggestions of pdfjsLib, pdfjsViewer, pdfjsWorker.

[brendandahl]

I’m leaning towards keeping PDFJS and letting the version number be the indication of change. If we change the name this time it seems like we should change it every major release, which I’d rather not do.