# Frontend Dependencies

I've always been hesitant using NodeJS for client-side dependency managment, but the `npm` package [frontend-dependencies](https://github.com/msurdi/frontend-dependencies) takes that away, and I did not want to commit any external vendor code here.

With [frontend-dependencies](https://github.com/msurdi/frontend-dependencies) we can pull in just the dependency files we need, not an entire `node_modules` directory of cruft.  Infact, nothing is put into the `node_modules` directory!  By default, I just pull in 2 files for each dependency ( the develpment and the minified version)

## Get Started

Running `npm install` will install all the production build dependencies for when you need them and as a `postinstall` hook, will populate the `src/public/vender` directory will all the client-side dependencies.  These are name-spaced.

You can add or remove dependencies from the `package.json` file.  Client-side dependencies are configured under `frontendDependencies`, which looks something like

```
"frontendDependencies": {
    "target": "src/public/vendor/",
    "packages": {
        "riot": {
            "version": "3.13.2",
            "src": "*min.js",
            "namespaced": true
        },
        "riot-route": {
            "version": "3.1.4",
            "src": "dist/route.*",
            "namespaced": true
        },
        "grayscale": {
            "src": "dist/*",
            "url": "https://github.com/n2geoff/grayscale",
            "namespaced": true
        }
    }
}
```

I found this to be, currently, the simplest way to manage client-side dependencies.

[Learn More](https://github.com/msurdi/frontend-dependencies) on the github page for the lib