Topic on Talk:ResourceLoader/Package files

Sometimes an external js library used in an extension can be extended with many optional plugins, which may or may not use require() functions. I would imagine that (a) the library can be added to the "packageFiles" of the main module (so it can be imported/required in the main entry file) and that (b) a list of plugins would be added, under "scripts", to a separate 'plugin module'. If you then want to add the plugin module to packageFiles, which approach would be best/recommended if at all possible?

• the config option, pointing to the module within extension.json (if self-referentiality is at all possible), or
• the PHP callback option, pointing to a function that somehow returns the RL module.

Or is there a better and more straightforward approach I'm overlooking?

I’m not sure if I follow you:

• If you want the two modules to be loaded unconditionally together (you want to add the plugin to the packageFiles of the base library, don’t you?), then why not just use one module?
• If you only want the plugin to depend on the base library, and not the other way round, just use a dependency and make the base library export its interface using module.exports.

Thanks, it works. The idea is, theoretically at first, to concatenate multiple plugins in a single module and then to require that module within the main file of the base module - rather than list and require each plugin file separately. The second option you've given there is interesting, but it looks like I can import the plugins module directly in the main file (of the base module) as long as (a) the plugins module has a dependency on the library module, which is declared in skin/extension.json, and (b) the mw.loader.using pattern illustrated here is used to require the module.

There are other conditions to be satisified but they are more specific to library/plugin conventions I guess - for instance, plugins may expect the library module to be named a particular way (so no custom naming for libraries in skin/extension.json), but that's just noise for now.