110 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
110 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Browser Builds
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description: Guide to using and writing modules and optimizing browser bundles.
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---
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# Browser Builds
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Bitcore and most official submodules work in the browser, thanks to [browserify](http://browserify.org/) (some modules are not fully compatible with web browsers).
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The easiest and recommended way to use them, is via [Bower](http://bower.io/), a browser package manager, and get the release bundles.
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For example, when building an app that uses `bitcore` and `bitcore-ecies`, you do:
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```sh
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bower install bitcore
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bower install bitcore-ecies
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```
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You can also use a `bower.json` file to store the dependencies of your project:
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```json
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{
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"name": "Your app name",
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"version": "0.0.1",
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"license": "MIT",
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"dependencies": {
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"bitcore-ecies": "^0.10.0",
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"bitcore": "^0.10.4"
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}
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}
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```
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and run `bower install` to install the dependencies.
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After this, you can include the bundled release versions in your HTML file:
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```html
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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta charset="utf-8">
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<script src="bower_components/bitcore/bitcore.min.js"></script>
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<script src="bower_components/bitcore-ecies/bitcore-ecies.min.js"></script>
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</head>
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<body>
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<script type="text/javascript">
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var bitcore = require('bitcore');
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var ECIES = require('bitcore-ecies');
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// etc...
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</script>
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</body>
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</html>
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```
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## Building Custom Bundles
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If you want to use a specific version of a module, instead of a release version (not recommended), you must run browserify yourself.
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You can get a minified browser bundle by running the following on the project root folder.
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```sh
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browserify --require ./index.js:bitcore | uglifyjs > bitcore.min.js
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```
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(for bitcore)
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```sh
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browserify --require ./index.js:bitcore-ecies --external bitcore | uglifyjs > bitcore-ecies.min.js
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```
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(for a bitcore module, `bitcore-ecies` in the example)
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## Development of Modules
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*Note:* You probably don't want to use this method, but `bitcore-build`, as explained above. This is left here as documentation on what happens under the hood with `bitcore-build`.
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When developing a module that will depend on Bitcore, it's recommended to exclude Bitcore in the distributed browser bundle when using browserify and to use the `--external bitcore` parameter. It will produce a smaller browser bundle, as it will only include the JavaScript that is nessessary, and will depend on the Bitcore browser build which is better for distribution.
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### Building the Bundle Manually
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**Step 1**: Require Bitcore
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Here we require Bitcore and define the namespace (`index.js`):
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```javascript
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var bitcore = require('bitcore');
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var PrivateKey = bitcore.PrivateKey;
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var PublicKey = bitcore.PublicKey;
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var Address = bitcore.Address;
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```
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See the [main file](https://github.com/bitpay/bitcore/blob/master/index.js) for bitcore for a complete list, as well as the [Bitcore Documentation](index.md).
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**Step 2**: Browserifying
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Next we will generate a browser bundle using [browserify](https://www.npmjs.com/package/browserify) by running the command:
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```bash
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browserify index.js:module-name --external bitcore -o module-name.js
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```
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This will output a file `module-name.js` with only the code loaded from `index.js` (bitcore.js will need to be loaded beforehand, which is around 145KB gzipped)
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**Step 3**: Uglifying
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This can be further optimized by using [uglifyjs](https://www.npmjs.com/package/uglify-js), and running the command:
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```bash
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uglifyjs module-name.js --compress --mangle -o module-name.min.js
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```
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