Hi Dan, The problems with browserify is the level of complexity it brings to the tooling/build process. Browserify needs to transipile different source files for each platform, because each platform has it's own exec/bridge to native. This means extra source files need to be copied along with every project's platform because we also need to be aware of versions.
Ultimately the fact that the functionality lived behind a flag meant that it went mostly unused, and it is hard to flip the switch to make it the default, when it has not seen enough usage to be proven. The reason it was added in the first place was to battle some FUD around load time, it was thought that because browserify yeilds 1 file, it would load faster. In a cordova app where the source files are all present, the load time from the file system is negligible. My tests showed an average 30-50 ms load time improvement when 50 plugins were loaded, which in my mind is not worth the added complexity and the latent bugs that are in there. Last count I saw some 20+ forks in code around if(browserify) ... All of that said, your case is different. Given that you are loading from a server, you can do whatever you want ... you can webpack/parcel/browserify the whole thing, you just need to be sure of serving the right cordova-exec to the right platform, and make sure the plugins match the native plugins. Cheers, Jesse @purplecabbage risingj.com On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 5:19 PM Dan Polivy <d...@cellartracker.com> wrote: > Hello, > > I realize I'm a little late to the party, but I've just read the release > notes for cordova 9, and am dismayed to find that browserify support was > removed. I've been relying on this for the past many years, as our app is > "remotely hosted", so I'm loading cordova.js (and all the plugin js) over > the internet. The addition of browserify was a huge benefit for this > situation, allowing us to build just a single JS bundle to deploy and > serve. I still use it regularly and have had no issues with the feature. > > Was there a discussion on removing this? Are there any plans to just bake > in support by default, instead of hiding it behind an option? Any > possibility of bringing it back? > > Thanks, > Dan > >
