Todo: Support various runtimes regarding execution environments and specific bundlers

[llamadeus]

When building my application I get the following warnings:

WARNING in ./node_modules/typhonjs-plugin-manager/dist/PluginManager.js 383:26-65
Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex-project/dist/Plugins.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex-project/dist/ESComplexProject.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex/dist/ESComplex.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex/dist/index.js
 @ ./src/background/worker.js
 @ multi ./src/background/worker.js

WARNING in ./node_modules/typhonjs-plugin-manager/dist/PluginManager.js 387:26-41
Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex-project/dist/Plugins.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex-project/dist/ESComplexProject.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex/dist/ESComplex.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex/dist/index.js
 @ ./src/background/worker.js
 @ multi ./src/background/worker.js

WARNING in ./node_modules/typhonjs-plugin-manager/dist/PluginManager.js 528:41-80
Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex-project/dist/Plugins.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex-project/dist/ESComplexProject.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex/dist/ESComplex.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex/dist/index.js
 @ ./src/background/worker.js
 @ multi ./src/background/worker.js

WARNING in ./node_modules/typhonjs-plugin-manager/dist/PluginManager.js 532:41-56
Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex-project/dist/Plugins.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex-project/dist/ESComplexProject.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex/dist/ESComplex.js
 @ ./node_modules/typhonjs-escomplex/dist/index.js
 @ ./src/background/worker.js
 @ multi ./src/background/worker.js

[typhonrt]

Hi @lamadeus. This warning is new to me. I have only used this plugin manager in a Node environment. I gather you are using Webpack after a little searching. Presently with the plugin manager there are certain paths that have dynamic require() usage depending on how plugins are loaded. Presently in typhonjs-escomplex these paths are not used, but Webpack does not like them. Let me know if you are not using Webpack.

My eventual plan is to have the plugin manager be more dynamic itself; IE itself be extendable for the environment for which it is being utilized in such as Node, JSPM / SystemJS, Webpack, etc. and provide the appropriate loading mechanism for each or perhaps the new dynamic import() functionality which is stage 3 might be applicable. Presently with the dynamic require() statements certain plugin loading paths are hard coded for a Node environment.

I guess you can say it's a somewhat of a complex problem as typhonjs-escomplex is a library / utility that could be used in many environments. For the most part I designed the rest of typhonjs-escomplex to be not dependent on an execution environment though I'm sure that needs to be finalized / tested as well.

Do let me know if you are using Webpack and which version and I'll see if I can start testing typhonjs-plugin-manager in other environments outside of Node. This may take some time though. So is in the 6+ month category of likely being resolved.

[typhonrt]

A follow up... This webpack issue #196 details the warning message with lots of commentary over the years. Technically right now typhonjs-plugin-manager is designed to only work in a Node environment with access to require() for loading user specified plugins.

There is a further but distant roadmap goal to enable typhonjs-plugin-manager to play nice with various package managers and different environments outside of Node.

In the case of typhonjs-escomplex user supplied plugins are not currently supported, but likely will be in the future. The warnings Webpack gives are superfluous in the current state of typhonjs-escomplex.

While not a good solution it seems it's possible to turn off Critical warnings in Webpack via exprContextCritical. It might also be possible to set PluginManager to not be parsed via module-noparse.

Can you mention how you are using Webpack and typhonjs-escomplex? Are you ultimately trying to bundle an app and use things outside of a Node environment?

[llamadeus]

Hi @typhonrt! Indeed, I'm using webpack to bundle typhonjs-escomplex as a WebWorker for a browser environment. Currently I'm using "webpack": "^4.26.0". However, after having a little research myself, I do not consider these warnings critical, at least in this case, because if I understood it correctly, the result is just a bigger bundle size. This is definitely ok for me, so I will simply ignore the warnings.

In my current project, I have a worker.js file, which is intended to be used as a WebWorker in a browser to analyze javascript in the background. This worker is the entry file in my webpack configuration.

If you have further questions, let me know!

[typhonrt]

@llamadeus Does typhonjs-escomplex work properly in the browser? I've not tested that at all, but as mentioned made design decisions to rely on as little of the node environment as possible.

[llamadeus]

@typhonrt I can confirm that despite the critical warnings typhonjs-escomplex works without problems in the browser. I'm using in in a WebWorker in Electron.

[typhonrt]

This is great to know especially that the effort to isolate the internals of typhonjs-escomplex works with Electron. Right now loading of default plugins in typhonjs-escomplex is actually hard coded. This likely will change in the future when supporting 3rd party plugins and an update to typhonjs-plugin-manager is needed to provide a runtime for various bundling and usage environments.

I'm going to change the name of this issue and leave it open as indeed handling different bundlers / package managers is a mid-term goal.