browserify-shim only works at top level of project and not at node_module level.

[cyruszah]

I have the following setup in my package.json file:

"browserify": {
"transform": [
"browserify-shim"
]
},
"browserify-shim": {
"jquery": "global:$"
}

This works fine except when an installed node_module like backbone does a 'require('jquery)', browserify-shim transform will not apply to the node_module and give me an error saying it can not find the jquery module.

If I add the above code to the package.json file of node_modules/backbone all woks fine.

[thlorenz]

Exactly.
Whoever publishes a module that needs shimming needs to include the browserify-shim config.

This is something we won't change. Contact the author of the module you're using to add the shim config instead.

when an installed node_module like backbone does a 'require('jquery)

If that module requires jquery without depending on it in the package.json, then that's a bug.
I'm sure this has been fixed by now, so upgrade your backbone version, otherwise bug the backbone authors to fix it ;)

[cueedee]

@thlorenz, it's not that backbone actually needs shimming: If my application's package.json simply specifies a dependency on jquery, then backbone's require('jquery') will just find it. In that sense, jquery is more like a peer dependency of backbone.

If, on the other hand I choose to load jquery externally through a CDN, I can expose that to the rest of my application through @cyruszah's browserify-shim declaration.

I, too, was fully expecing that shim to be a drop-in replacement for `require('jquery') at any level; my application's code, as well as its dependencies.

In other words, I was not expecting the latter case to be any different from the former.

[chrylis]

Same issue here with Magnific Popup, which also uses the same idiom to load jQuery (and I'm not the only one). The hard cutoff at node_modules is surprising and frustrating, and I can't find any clean workaround with browserify-shim. (I can go straight to browserify and write my own shim.)

[bendrucker]

The hard cutoff at node_modules is surprising and frustrating

It's how browserify works. Transforms don't run on node_modules unless you make them global transforms.