amd.md

AMD - Asynchronous Module Definition

AMD's goal is to provide a solution for modular JavaScript. AMD's format allows both the module and dependencies to be asynchronously loaded.

Two key concepts are the define method for facilitating module definition and the require method for handling dependency loading.

define is used to define named or unnamed modules using the following format:

  define(
      module_id /*optional*/,
      [dependencies] /*optional*/,
      definition function /*function for instantiating the module or object*/
  );

The dependencies argument is an array of dependencies which are required by the module and the define function is a function that's executed to initiate your module.

Example:

  define('myModule',
    ['one', 'two'],
    function (one, two){
      var myModule = {
        doSomething: function(){
          console.log('hello');
        }
        return myModule;
      }
    }
  )

require works as follows:

// one and two are two external modules
require(['one', 'two'], function (one, two ) {
        // rest of your code here
        one.doSomething();
});

Dynamically-loaded dependencies:

define(function(require){
  var isReady = false, oneTwo;

  require(['one', 'two'], function(one, two){
    isReady = true;
    oneTwo = one() + two();
  })

  return{
    isReady: isReady,
    oneTwo: oneTwo
  }
})

Loading AMD modules using RequireJS:

require('app/myModule', function(myModule){
  var module = new myModule();
  module.doSomething();
})