AlmondJS + CDN module with UMD

[bjnsn]

Recently ran into a collision between a built version of a project that uses AlmondJS but loads a CDN version of webfontloader. Webfontloader recently added a UMD wrapper - and that caused an error within the AlmondJS define method:

  Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'splice' of undefined

The culprit was a call within the webfontloader UMD wrapper with this signature: define(function():*). This is valid within RequireJS, but isn't within AlmondJS.

Is this an issue with Webfontloader, with AlmondJS - or should I not be running AlmondJS alongside CDN versions of libraries that use UMD?

[jrburke]

Almond is not designed to load remote resources, it is strictly for use when combining a bunch of modules into one file for download. So this behavior is expected, out of scope for almond.

[bjnsn]

Hmm. I'm not using it to load an external resource; it is being referenced by an external resource that is already loaded via a script tag (from a CDN). Almond's define is being duck-typed by Webontloader's UMD wrapper to see if it is an AMD loader - once it is decided that it 'quacks like a duck' it proceeds to use it like RequireJS define.

I believe a noConflict option that would prevent AlmondJS from injecting define into the global scope would solve the issue. That way other files on the page which check for define wouldn't find one that doesn't behave as expected.

[jrburke]

You can get the effect of a noConflict by building with the r.js optimizer setting wrap: true.

[bjnsn]

Perfect - exactly what I was looking for!