if you have a RequireJS module like so:

define(
    [
        '#patches',
        'backbone',
        'underscore',
        'react',
        '#allCollections',
        '#allModels',
        'app/js/routers/router',
        '#allTemplates',
        '#allControllers',
        '#allRelViews'
    ],

function(){

   var patches = arguments[0];

});

is there any way to know which dependency gets loaded first? In my case, '#patches' is a few window.X utility functions that I want to load before anything else. Do I need to configure this a different way to ensure this?

(in my case "#' is just my own notation to denote a module whose path is predefined in my main config file)

if you have a RequireJS module like so:

define(
    [
        '#patches',
        'backbone',
        'underscore',
        'react',
        '#allCollections',
        '#allModels',
        'app/js/routers/router',
        '#allTemplates',
        '#allControllers',
        '#allRelViews'
    ],

function(){

   var patches = arguments[0];

});

is there any way to know which dependency gets loaded first? In my case, '#patches' is a few window.X utility functions that I want to load before anything else. Do I need to configure this a different way to ensure this?

(in my case "#' is just my own notation to denote a module whose path is predefined in my main config file)

• javascript
• requirejs

• 1 Like François Richard already said it is possible to influence the order in which the dependencies load implicitly but I would not recommend this as best practice. The usual way to go is that every dependency itself states it's dependencies, so if for example your #allRelViews needs the window utilities it should state this in it's define call. If you're not in control of the dependency I would suggest you use the shim approach that has been suggested in the accepted answer - the only other way I see is to modify the source, but you would have to do this for every update of the library. – mfeineis Commented Aug 7, 2015 at 8:11
• 1 Backbone and Underscore are AMD-compliant. (They call define.) If your own modules also call define, then most of the modules you show in your question cannot be used with the answer you accepted because shim has a defined behavior only for non-AMD modules. If you use shim for a module that calls define, the results are undefined. (When I tried it, it was usually ignored but since there are no semantics to it, RequireJS is free to change what it does from one release to the next. It's like an uninitialized pointer in C: there's no guaranteed what value it gets.) – Louis Commented Aug 9, 2016 at 15:05
• Any solution for actual AMD modules? – Patrick Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 6:59
• @Patrick use shim in the your require.js config, like the accepted answer says; although apparently only works for non-AMD modules? that seems strange, but I guess so. – Alexander Mills Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 7:11
• the other way, which is more brute force, would be to nest require calls, like so require('x', function(x){ require('y', function(){ require('z', function(z){})})}) – Alexander Mills Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 7:12

1 Answer 1

From the documentation : http://requirejs.org/docs/api.html#mechanics

"RequireJS waits for all dependencies to load, figures out the right order in which to call the functions that define the modules, then calls the module definition functions once the dependencies for those functions have been called. Note that the dependencies for a given module definition function could be called in any order, due to their sub-dependency relationships and network load order."

I think this may help: http://www.sitepoint.com/understanding-requirejs-for-effective-javascript-module-loading/ (see "Managing the Order of Dependent Files")

RequireJS uses Asynchronous Module Loading (AMD) for loading files. Each dependent module will start loading through asynchronous requests in the given order. Even though the file order is considered, we cannot guarantee that the first file is loaded before the second file due to the asynchronous nature. So, RequireJS allows us to use the shim config to define the sequence of files which need to be loaded in correct order. Let’s see how we can create configuration options in RequireJS.

requirejs.config({
  shim: {
    'source1': ['dependency1','dependency2'],
    'source2': ['source1']
  }
});

Hope it helps

EDIT: As said in comments, using Shim for AMD module is a bad idea, use only shim for non AMD modules and manage dependencies order there. For AMD module requirejs will manage the order of loading. A good link from the comments (thanks Daniel Tulp) ==> Requirejs why and when to use shim config