Multi-context requirejs and inheriting dependencies between contexts

Question

I am using RequireJs to load AMD-modules on my company's main web site. We are also using requireJS to load modules hosted on separate domains. requireJS supports this using the "context"-field; ie. create a separate sandboxed environment with a separate baseUrl.

The problem at hand is when we want the two separate contexts to share a common object; eg. jquery (to avoid loading it twice) or a pubsub-implementation that trigger events in between widgets.

I've figured a way to inject modules in between contexts, using a define function together with a global requireJS

main.js - hosted on http://example.com/src/main.js

require(['jquery'], functin($){

    // create sandbox/contexted instance of requireJs 
    var sandbox = requireJS.config({
        context: "myContext",
        baseUrl : 'http://otherdomain.com/src'
    });

    // load module (with internal dependencies) from other domain
    sandbox.require(['modules/bootstrap.js'], function(bootstrap){
        bootstrap.run();
    });

});

bootstrap.js - eg. hosted on http://widgets.com/src/modules/bootstrap.js

define(function(){

    // define jquery into sandboxed environemnt
    requireJs('jquery', function($) {
        define('jquery', function(){
            return window.jQuery;
       });
    });

    // obtain sandboxed instance from parent
    var sandbox = requireJs.config({
        context: "myContext"
    });

    sandbox(['jquery'], function($){
        console.log($);
    });

});

The problem is that if Im defining jquery (or any other module that returns a function), tje "requreJS"-way (not using globals) it will always throw an error

    // define jquery into sandboxed environemnt
    requireJs('jquery', function($) {
        define('jquery', $);
    });

Is this a bug or a feature ?

Aksel N. Aksel N. · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-18T10:07:44

Ive actually solved this myself. The trick is to wrap the returned function within a new anonymous function.

// inject global module into contexted require
function injectContext(moduleId, module){
    var m = module;
    if(typeof module === 'function') {
        m = function() {
            return module;
        };
    } 
    define(moduleId, m);
}

Multi-context requirejs and inheriting dependencies between contexts

1 Answers