babel-plugin-discard-module-references

Babel plugin to discard all code using specified imported modules.

If other imported modules are not used anymore, they are discarded as well.

Use cases

• write your tests along your code, run them in development but discard them on production
• discard analytics code in dev mode
• ???

Usage

1. Install the plugin

npm i -D babel-plugin-discard-module-references

1. Update your .babelrc with plugin settings

{
  "presets": ["es2015"],
  "plugins": [
    ["discard-module-references", {
      "targets": [ "some-module", "./or-even/relative-path" ]
    }]
  ]
}

You can restrict the plugin to specific environments (like, NODE_ENV=production) using babel env config:

{
    "presets": ["es2015"],
    "env": {
        "production": {
            "plugins": [
                ["discard-module-references", {
                    "targets": [ "my-test-framework" ]
                }]
            ]
        }
    }
}

1. ... or any config you're using, seek help from doc

Whitelisting unused imports

By default, all unused module imports will be discarded, wether or not it's because you target the only code that were using them. By example, if you import sinon for you tests but discard all of them, sinon becomes useless and gets discarded as well.

There is a potential issue with that when a module has expected side effects when imported.

To whitelist a module so its import never gets discarded, simply use the unusedWhitelist options:

{
  "presets": ["es2015"],
  "plugins": [
    ["discard-module-references", {
      "targets": [ "assert" ],
      "unusedWhitelist": [ "sinon" ]
    }]
  ]
}

Note: unspecified imports such as import 'foobar'; are kept by default as they obviously must have some expected side effects.

Note for React with JSX

If you're using React with JSX, you will probably need to whitelist react.

Explanation: When using babel with JSX, you need to have import React from 'react' in your files because JSX will be converted to React.doSomething() call. This happens after the plugin runs, as a result, the import will be discarded as it is seen as unused your app will fail with React is undefined.

Just whitelist it and you'll be fine:

{
    "presets": ["es2015", "react"],
    "env": {
        "production": {
            "plugins": [
                ["discard-module-references", {
                    "targets": [ "tape" ],
                    "unusedWhitelist": [ "react" ]
                }]
            ]
        }
    }
}

Example

Writing tests right in the tested code file

The original scenario that motivated the plugin was to be able to write tests along tested code, run them in development mode (so we don't need to run another tool, just use the code and see if it breaks) but of course remove all of them for production code.

With the following code, a production build that would use babel-plugin-discard-module-references with assert would just do the trick.

import assert, { deepEqual } from 'assert';
import _ from 'lodash';
import path from 'path';
 
export default function add(n1, n2) {
  return n1 + n2;
}
 
function doSomethingWithLodash() {
  return _.pick({nose: 'big'}, 'nose');
}
 
assert(add(1, 2) === 3);
assert.equal(typeof add, 'function');
deepEqual({a:1}, {a:1});
assert(path.basename('foo/bar.html') === 'something');

Would be compiled to the following, where all tests are removed;

'use strict';
 
Object.defineProperty(exports, "__esModule", {
  value: true
});
exports.default = add;
 
var _lodash = require('lodash');
 
var _lodash2 = _interopRequireDefault(_lodash);
 
function _interopRequireDefault(obj) { return obj && obj.__esModule ? obj : { default: obj }; }
 
function add(n1, n2) {
  return n1 + n2;
}
 
function doSomethingWithLodash() {
  return _lodash2.default.pick({ nose: 'big' }, 'nose');
}

Note how the import of path has been discarded.