Doesn't work with Browserify

[epsil]

I have trouble using this library with Browserify. Whenever I do require('preq'), the browserified bundle stops working. That is, Browserify succeeds in creating a bundle; but the bundle doesn't work. When the bundle file is included in a web page, nothing happens.

The command I use to create a bundle is:

browserify index.js -o bundle.js

where index.js is a file that requires preq, and bundle.js is the resulting file to include in a web page's <script> tag.

Note that the request library, which preq builds upon, is browserifiable. request seamlessly invokes XMLHttpRequest when run in the browser.

[gwicke]

We have not really tried to use preq with browserify so far, so don't have previous experience with this issue. Do you see specific JS errors in the console when using the bundle?

Longer term, I think it might make sense to use fetch instead of request. This should help cut down bundle sizes for the majority of users with native fetch support.

[epsil]

I see no output in the browser console at all. It is as if the code itself is corrupt.

I've done some further tests, commenting out blocks of code in preq's source code and trying to rebuild. There are two main possibilities:

1. One of preq's dependencies is not browserifiable, so preq is not browserifiable.
2. Some part of preq's source code confuses Browserify.

I think I have eliminated the first possibility, as bluebird, url, util, querystring, semver and request are all compatible with Browserify. That leaves the second option.

What seems to confuse Browserify is this line in the definition of createConnectTimeoutAgent():

var http = require(protocol);

What Browserify does, after all, is to scan the source code for require statements and include the referenced modules. This line seems to trip it up, however; it is probably too "dynamic", since protocol is a variable and not a string.

The solution, then, would be to require all libraries statically:

var http = require('http');
var https = require('https');
var require = require('require');

and then refactor the code as necessary.

[gwicke]

@epsil, I haven't gotten back to this yet. If you have a moment to tackle it, this sounds like a worthwhile change to make.