django-require 1.0.4

Features

• Optimize your static assets using the excellent r.js optimizer.

• Compile standalone modules using the almond.js shim.

• Compatible with any Django staticfiles storage backend.

Installation

1. Checkout the latest django-require release and copy or symlink the require directory into your PYTHONPATH. If using pip, run pip install django-require.

2. Add 'require' to your INSTALLED_APPS setting.

3. Set your STATICFILES_STORAGE setting to 'require.storage.OptimizedStaticFilesStorage' or 'require.storage.OptimizedCachedStaticFilesStorage'.

Available settings

Available settings, and their default values, are shown below. You should configure this to match the layout of your project’s static files. Please consult the RequireJS documentation for more information about how to build javascript using RequireJS.

# The baseUrl to pass to the r.js optimizer.
REQUIRE_BASE_URL = "js"

# The name of a build profile to use for your project, relative to REQUIRE_BASE_URL.
# A sensible value would be 'app.build.js'. Leave blank to use the built-in default build profile.
REQUIRE_BUILD_PROFILE = None

# The name of the require.js script used by your project, relative to REQUIRE_BASE_URL.
REQUIRE_JS = "require.js"

# A dictionary of standalone modules to build with almond.js.
# See the section on Standalone Modules, below.
REQUIRE_STANDALONE_MODULES = {}

# Whether to run django-require in debug mode.
REQUIRE_DEBUG = settings.DEBUG

# A tuple of files to exclude from the compilation result of r.js.
REQUIRE_EXCLUDE = ("build.txt",)

# The execution environment in which to run r.js: auto, node or rhino.
# auto will autodetect the environment and make use of node if available and rhino if not.
# It can also be a path to a custom class that subclasses require.environments.Environment and defines some "args" function that returns a list with the command arguments to execute.
REQUIRE_ENVIRONMENT = "auto"

Generating require.js

As a shortcut to downloading a copy of require.js from the internet, you can simply run the require_init management to copy a version of require.js into your STATICFILES_DIRS, at the location specified by your REQUIRE_BASE_URL and REQUIRE_JS settings.

$ ./manage.py require_init

Generating build profiles

In almost all cases, you’ll want to create a custom build profile for your project. To help you get started, django-require can generate a default build profile into your STATICFILES_DIRS. Just set your REQUIRE_BUILD_PROFILE setting to a build profile name, and run require_init. A good name for a build profile would be 'app.build.js'.

Any standalone modules that your specify with a build profile will also have a default build profile generated when you run this command.

Running javascript modules in templates

You can run javascript modules in templates by using the {% require_module %} template tag.

<html>
    {% load require %}
    <head>
        {% require_module 'main' %}
    </head>
    <body></body>
</html>

This template fragment would then render to something like:

<html>
    <head>
        <script src="/static/js/require.js" data-main="/static/js/main.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body></body>
</html>

If the 'main' module was specified as a standalone module in your REQUIRE_STANDALONE_MODULES setting, and REQUIRE_DEBUG is False, then the template fragement would instead render as:

This template fragment would then render to something like:

<html>
    <head>
        <script src="/static/js/main-built.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body></body>
</html>

Building standalone modules

As a further optimization to your code, you can build your modules to run independently of require.js, which can often speed up page load times. Standalone modules are built using the almond.js shim, so consult the almond.js documentation to make sure that it’s safe to build your module in standalone mode.

To specify standalone modules, simply add them to your REQUIRE_STANDALONE_MODULES setting, as below:

REQUIRE_STANDALONE_MODULES = {
    "main": {
        # Where to output the built module, relative to REQUIRE_BASE_URL.
        "out": "main-built.js",

        # Optional: A build profile used to build this standalone module.
        "build_profile": "main.build.js",
    }
}

Running the r.js optmizer

The r.js optimizer is run automatically whenever you call the collectstatic management command. The optimizer is run as a post-processing step on your static files.

django-require provides two storage classes that are ready to use with the r.js optimizer:

• require.storage.OptimizedStaticFilesStorage - A filesystem-based storage that runs the r.js optimizer.

• require.storage.OptimizedCachedStaticFilesStorage - As above, but fingerprints all files with an MD5 hash of their contents for HTTP cache-busting.

Creating your own optimizing storage classes

You can add r.js optmization to any django staticfiles storage class by using the require.storage.OptimizedFilesMixin. For example, to make an optimizing storage that uploads to Amazon S3 using S3BotoStorage from django-storages:

from storages.backends.s3boto import S3BotoStorage
from require.storage import OptimizedFilesMixin

# S3 storage with r.js optimization.
class OptimizedS3BotoStorage(OptimizedFilesMixin, S3BotoStorage):
    pass

# S3 storage with r.js optimization and MD5 fingerprinting.
from django.contrib.staticfiles.storage import CachedFilesMixin
class OptimizedCachedS3BotoStorage(OptimizedFilesMixin, CachedFilesMixin, S3BotoStorage):
    pass

Support and announcements

Downloads and bug tracking can be found at the main project website.

You can keep up to date with the latest announcements by joining the django-require discussion group.

More information

The django-require project was developed by Dave Hall. You can get the code from the django-require project site.

Dave Hall is a freelance web developer, based in Cambridge, UK. You can usually find him on the Internet in a number of different places:

• Website

• Twitter

• Google Profile