Placing Javascript code within a string?

Question

I'm trying to have the ability to put Javascript code within strings (inside Javascript). I'm using my own gruntjs task to read all the javascript files and place it within strings.

var modules = []; modules['filename.js'] = "code here...."

This works for simple Javascript classes, but when putting external libraries in such format (JQuery, Ember.js, Underscore) it will fail. I am replacing each " inside the code to \". But I'm still getting syntax errors. I'm thinking it may have to do with some RegEx, or, in some parts they might have escaped some double quotes.

Edit: The code is found here: https://github.com/TheHydroImpulse/resolve.js But specifically the build script (gruntjs) is here: https://github.com/TheHydroImpulse/resolve.js/blob/master/examples/basic/grunt.js

Any Suggestions?

• Alexis Pigeon: Have you tried encoding/decoding the content of the JS files?
• Daniel: In what sense? Meaning UTF8 or something?
• Tyilo: Maybe base64 or similar?
• Alexis Pigeon: No, I mean using encoreURIComponent / decodeURIComponent
• Daniel: Would this not render special characters useless? Or would I have to re-encode before using the contents of the stringified code?

Answer 1

In order to keep intact the JS code, you'll have to encode it before storing it to a string, and decode the string before using it.

Both operations can be carried out with built-in JavaScript functions encodeURIComponent() and decodeURIComponent()

Answer 2

Wild stab in the dark here (just became halloween here under an hour ago) but maybe you are not putting it all into one line, and therefore not handling multiline strings correctly...

Or maybe you are crushing the files into one line, and not adding semi-colons where necessary.

I recommend you use a tool for minifying, like uglify and then try it with the libraries as a single line of minified javascript.

• Daniel: Yes UglifyJS is being uses to minify and concatenate everything. My system works under simple scripts with multiple lines. In Chrome, it doesn't seem to display the whole contents of the minified and concatenated file and only shows a small portion of it.