Using Node.js to Optimize RequireJS in Visual Studio 2012

Question

I apologize if this is a noob question. I only discovered the concept of AMD, Node and RequireJS yesterday. Been reading tutorials and testing with this all day and can't seem to get this to work. Bottom line, when I run the command in the node.js command prompt I just get the three dots (...) and nothing else. I have no idea what it's doing and/or why it's doing or not doing it.

Here is the current folder structure of my multi-page ASP.NET MVC project:

        -Project Root
            -scripts
                    -app
                        -home
                            -index.js
                        -common.js
                    -lib
                        -require.js
                        -jquery.js
                    -build.js
                    -r.js

Here is my build.js:

    ({
        appDir: '../../', //Project Root
        baseUrl: 'scripts', //Project Root/scripts
        dir: "../../scripts-build", //Project Root/scripts-build
        modules: [
        { name: "app/common" },
        { name: "app/home/index" }]
    });

From Visual Studio, I installed node.js from Nuget. I added node.exe as an External Tool. When I open the node external tool, I get a command prompt. I change the current working directory to my script folder

 process.chdir('C:/Project Root/scripts')

I then run from inside the scripts folder:

 node r.js -o build.js

Then I just see the three dots and nothing else. The optimized file never appears in the scripts-build output directory and I never get an error

user2754435 · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-09 15:40:52Z

I've just started looking into AMD, Node, RequireJs and r.js myself and hit the same problem. I'm not sure how you've set up Node but after some trial and error I have a working version that minifies and bundles my scripts correctly.

First I created a Tools folder and placed Node.exe and r.js in it. Then I created a Post-build event for the project like below:

$(SolutionDir)Tools\node.exe $(SolutionDir)Tools\r.js -o $(ProjectDir)app.build.js

Then every time you build your project your scripts get minified etc. Finally my app.build.js looks like this (you'll obviously need to edit this to suit your project structure):

({
    appDir: '../ProjectSource',
    baseUrl: 'backbone/account',
    dir: 'js_build',
    mainConfigFile: 'backbone/account/account.js',
    modules: [{
        name: 'account'
    }]
})

Note, my solution/project is structured as below

MyProject
    SolutionFile.sln
    Tools
        node.exe
        r.js
    ProjectSource
        app.build.js
        Backbone
            Account
                account.js

DanielRosca · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-16 13:28:38Z

I know that there is a long time since you posted this question, but I see that there is still no approved answer.

Based on your folder structure I would suggest you to: 1. take r.js out of the project 2. move build.js to Project Root 3. Change "appDir" param in build.js to "./" 4. Change "baseUrl" param to "./scripts" 5. Change "dir" param to "./dist"

With those options it will create a folder called "dist" in Project Root where you will find the optimized files. In case there will be any errors while running the following command "r.js -o build.js" from Project Root in cmd, there might be dependencies in our js files that should be specified in build.js.

Note: "appDir" and "dir" parameter are used when the optimized files are moved in a new directory (destination directory) and they don't refer to your application source.

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