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I'm trying to use Microsoft's Web Optimization bundling toolkit, which works well for everything else.

When I try to ask it to minify AngularJS, though, I get this error message in the resultant Javascript output:

"Ambiguous reference to named function expression"

I'm not even sure where to start with this one . . .

blaster
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    http://docs.angularjs.org/tutorial/step_05 http://thegreenpizza.github.io/2013/05/25/building-minification-safe-angular.js-applications/ – SLaks Sep 18 '13 at 19:54
  • That's not what I mean. :) I'm not talking about Angular-using application code. The Angular library itself won't minify. – blaster Sep 18 '13 at 20:10
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    Why not use the minified versions of the build? Angular releases minified versions of all their builds. – Fourth Sep 18 '13 at 20:21
  • Fair question - I want to bundle about 5-7 third-party libraries together in one minified download to streamline load times. In trying to feed unminified versions of all 5-7 libraries to Microsoft's minifying bundler, Microsoft's minifier chokes on Angular (but none of the other libraries). There has to be something weird in Microsoft's minifier or something weird in angular.js. – blaster Sep 19 '13 at 19:46

2 Answers2

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The answer to this question (which should not have been downvoted, in my opinion, because it represents a real issue) is to upgrade from the older Microsoft.Web.Optimization package that uses the "Microsoft.Web.Optimization" namespace and making sure you're using their latest, signified by the "System.Web.Optimization" namespace instead.

In the older Microsoft package, Angular would bomb out when handed to JsMinify. Not so anymore in the latest version.

I hadn't realized at first that I was on an older version of that package because the package name changed - hence my spinning my wheels on it for a while.

blaster
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The best workaround in my opinion is to preminify the Angular applications using ngmin before minifying with another tool in order to keep dependency injection working.

https://github.com/btford/ngmin

HTH

a.s.t.r.o
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  • It's angular best practice to just do this as you write the functions. You shouldn't lean on a tool to do what you should be doing as a matter of practice. This adds a step to the deployment or build process that you simply don't need or want to manage. – Fourth Sep 18 '13 at 20:06
  • I already write all my application code the way described - and it minifies just fine (all my services, controllers, etc)! I'm talking about the Angular library itself. In the absence of any application code, even, Angular won't minify even if it's the only thing in the bundle. – blaster Sep 18 '13 at 20:10
  • @Fourth minifying itself is a step in deployment you have to manage, ngmin is part of this step, not another step. You can of course choose to replace it by more meaningless code in your app, its up to you. – a.s.t.r.o Sep 19 '13 at 10:43
  • @blaster there must be something else preventing the minification, Angular app minifies just fine by itself. You should try it without the Microsoft thing and see how it goes, maybe the problem is there. – a.s.t.r.o Sep 19 '13 at 10:43
  • I'm using Microsoft's own minifier to do the minification. What I want is to be able to bundle several third party libraries together in one download to optimize page load times. For example, to include jQuery then Angular together in the same minified bundle. It works on all other libraries besides Angular. – blaster Sep 19 '13 at 19:43
  • @blaster yes, it is called concatenation, and I'm doing it too with Angular and It works as expected. Good luck with that though :) – a.s.t.r.o Sep 19 '13 at 20:53
  • I want to concatenate and minify. I do know what concatenation is called. :) – blaster Sep 23 '13 at 17:01