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subtlegra..

jQuery future modularity?

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in Developing jQuery Core • 2 years ago

Ahoy all.

I heard something somewhere about a future version of jQuery becoming more modular.

How exactly will that work?

I would imagine that individual modules would be broken up into very focused areas of functionality.

Basic DOM manipulation, CSS, AJAX, DOM Events, Custom Events, etc…

Sizzle is an awesome step towards modularity.

Would you then be able to make your own custom jQuery build similar to how MooTools builder works?

i.e. http://mootools.net/core

Over in the MooTools universe we have been pushing for all MooTools plugins to include a list of explicit dependancies across multiple packages. We're working on a tool that'll let you build out a plugin and include only the absolute minimum necessary modules across many packages, even only including some MooTools-core modules. We're working with the CommonJS community too.

It would be super-super awesome if our plugins could also add individual jQuery modules as dependencies. Then users could use only the code they want without having to include two selector engines, two AJAX modules, etc…

A lot of people are really excited about this possibility, including me!

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help out.

— Thomas Aylott
SubtleGradient
MooTools

Replies(5)

jeresig

Re: jQuery future modularity?

2 years ago

We're not really shooting modular in the sense of "You can run the jQuery events module standalone" more in that you can dynamically load the events module at a later time, but it still heavily depends upon the rest of jQuery. Mostly it's a matter of taking things that were previously kept tucked away in a closure and making it easier for us to dynamically load portions of the library. It's not really so much about building a configurable version of jQuery that will include/exclude portions of the library.

subtlegra..

Re: jQuery future modularity?

2 years ago

Righto, gotcha.

So most of the modules would at least require jQuery-base (or whatever label the absolute minimum baseline code would have). And then some modules would require other modules?

So, if jQuery is split up into these modules enough to be able to load separately,

would it be possible to only pull in the few modules that you actually need to use on the page?

e.g. Sizzle, basic DOM manipulation, CSS manipulation. No Ajax, no events, etc…

Could a user then manually build their own custom jQuery build instead of dynamically loading these modules via AJAX or dynamic script injection or whatever?

That's surely not the main goal of the modularity, but it could be a very useful side-effect.

— Thomas Aylott – SubtleGradient – MooTools – SlickJS

jeresig

Re: jQuery future modularity?

2 years ago

Yep, that's certainly one side-effect of this happening - although it's certainly a long-term process. We reduced a bunch of the interdependency in 1.4 and we'll keep shooting for more.

kswedberg

Re: jQuery future modularity?

2 years ago

A totally modular approach in which users can create their own custom jQuery build isn't without its disadvantages. It has the potential to add complexity which makes troubleshooting and support more difficult.

Thomas, what has been your experience with this in the Mootools community. In particular, do newer users of the library ever run into problems because they aren't aware that they don't have the necessary modules loaded?

--Karl

subtlegra..

Re: jQuery future modularity?

2 years ago

That's a very good point.

I'd say that 90% of our IRC support is CSS issues and not JS related at all.

But I'm sure that's the case for all frameworks. Our awesome frameworks (MooTools, jQuery, YUI, etc…) make things so easy that it makes CSS hard in comparison ;)

Having the Shell http://mootools.net/shell and jsfiddle.net has been a major tool for support.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone having issues because they didn't have the right modules loaded. I'm sure it's come up, but so rarely that I can't remember.

I think there are 2 major reasons for this:

1) New users just download the default build of "core" and never think about it again.

2) Long-time users have used the builder for a long time and have gotten used to it.

However, I think the jQuery devs would have to tread very carefully here. Implementing it as a new feature might cause some support issues simply because people aren't used to it. I'd recommend making the default download the normal full set of standard modules. Then provide a link for advanced users to go so a separate builder UI page or something.

Another route to go would be to only allow custom builds using a shell script once you download the full source from GitHub. Genuine n00bs aren't going to bother working that hard to confuse themselves and the nerdiest users wouldn't mind.

If you do want to do the whole dynamic-loading thing in a n00b-friendly way, I'd recommend including both versions in a single download. That way they can swap out the dynamic-loading version with the full version for debugging purposes.

The way YUI does their dynamic-loading is pretty interesting. I'm not sure that would really translate to the jQuery api however. Although, having the magical chainable jQuery object does give you the power to experiment with interesting things like promises.

I'm excited to see what you guys come up with. JS FTW!

I'd also highly recommend either using jsfiddle, jsbin or making a jQuery.com/shell or something to help users help each other debug (esp. css/fx issues). If they won't bother making a simple functional/breaking paste then they aren't really interested in getting supported imho.

— Thomas Aylott – SubtleGradient – MooTools – SlickJS

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