Close Look into “Include” JavaScript Compression Lib - A Client-Side Solution | Just Talk About Web…

It is true that Packer requires correct semi-colon usage in all your scripts for the compressed code to work correctly. I’ve found the best way to fix problems is to narrow down missing semicolon problems is like this:

1) compress the problem script in packer directly (http://dean.edwards.name/packer/)
2) put the compressed script in eclipse (my IDE of choice)
3) if eclipse shows a syntax error, cut the code in half and try both halfs until the problem is found

Alternatively, YUI Compressor doesn’t have the same strict requirements for syntax. We’ve written a Ruby server-side script that works by accepting the ordered list of files generated by Include and using YUI Compressor on the files. More info on that (and the download) is on the main Include page (http://javascriptmvc.com/learningcenter/include/index.html), or in this readme: http://javascriptmvc.com/include_ruby/readme.txt

If you need to change the default location of your production file, you can do so like this:
include.setup({env: ‘production’, production: ’scripts/production.js’});
Doing this will also remove those extra loads of include you’re seeing in Firebug because you’ll be using production mode. Check out the API docs for more info (http://javascriptmvc.com/learningcenter/include/api.html).

@Andrea, I will look into the MyMin compressor. If it is written in JavaScript and relaxes the syntax requirements of Packer, you may see it in a future release.

- Brian

Problem is Dean Edwards’ Packer used for compression did not produce “safe” scripts for my project…

so switch to MyMin from packed.it