Installation

Generally speaking, we would install bit-bundler via the npm cli, yarn, or whatever other tool of your choice.

There are a several ways in which you can use bit-bundler, and that determines how you install bit-bundler. But first, let's cover the requirements.

Requirements

nodejs version 4.8.0 (or later) as well as npm, yarn, or equivalent to install packages. Throughout the docs, unless otherwise stated, the assumption is that your environment is node.

global cli

The simplest approach for using bit-bundler is via its CLI. If you are looking to use bit-bundler's CLI, the quickest way is a global install. So, from the command line execute:

$ npm install @bit/bundler -g

And now you can run bit-bundler with a sample command like the one below.

$ bitbundler --src src/index.js --dest dist/out.js

While global installs are quick and convenient, it has limitations and drawbacks. A better approach is using bit-bundler's CLI through npm scripts.

npm scripts

You can run bit-bundler's CLI through npm scripts. In order to do that, you need to install bit-bundler in your project as a dev dependency and define npm scripts in your package.json. This integration with npm scripts removes the need to install bit-bundler globally with the added benefit of allowing you to define a specific version of bit-bundler for each project.

npm scripts integration is the preferred method for using bit-bundler's CLI in your project.

From the command line in your project's directory, execute:

$ npm install @bit/bundler --save-dev

Now in the package.json for your project you can define an npm script as shown below.

{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "bitbundler --src src/index.js --dest dist/out.js"
  }
}

And from your favorite shell:

$ npm run build

You can read more about this approach here. Also, a very helpful tool called npx allows you to interact with bit-bundler's CLI directly if you needed to. More on npx here.

Running bit-bundler via its CLI (global or npm scripts) will automatically load any configuration file (.bitbundler.js or .bitbundler.json) that is present in your project. You can alternatively specify the name of the configuration file you want to load by specifying a --config argument. CLI arguments are merged with options from your configuration files, with CLI arguments taking higher precedence.

The equivalent configuration for the above command looks like the following:

// file name is .bitbundler.js
module.exports = {
  "src": "src/index.js",
  "dest": "dist/out.js"
};

And your command will now look like:

$ bitbundler

And you npm scripts now becomes

{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "bitbundler"
  }
}

api

The last approach is to use bit-bundler's API directly in your code. From the command line:

$ npm install @bit/bundler --save-dev

Now you are ready to import bit-bundler.

ES module

import Bitbundler from "@bit/bundler";

Bitbundler.bundle({
  src: "src/main.js",
  dest: "dist/out.js"
});

CJS module

const Bitbundler = require("@bit/bundler");

Bitbundler.bundle({
  src: "src/main.js",
  dest: "dist/out.js"
});