Mangle nested classes and variables with uglifyjs

Question

I use uglifyjs to minify a concatenated set of files, which works fine but not good enough. The built lib uses namespaces, so classes, functions and constants are stored in

Answer 1

Aside from @JanMisker 's point (which is completely valid), rewriting properties is unsafe because they can be exposed to code outside the scope of the minification.

Although the self executing function has a scope, and if the code is only

(function() {
  var root = { api:{}, core:{}, names:{} };
  root.names.SOME_LONG_NAMED_CONST='Angel';
  alert(root.names.SOME_LONG_NAMED_CONST); // some code that does something
})();

It is true that outside of the function, there is no way to access the root object, so rewriting the property names is safe, and the following code would result in the same:

(function() {
  var a = { b:{}, c:{}, d:{} };
  a.d.e='Angel';
  alert(a.d.e);
})();

But even if you are inside your private scope you can access, and more importantly assign to variables from an outer scope! Imagine this:

(function() {
  var root = { api:{}, core:{}, names:{} };
  root.api.perform = function(param_for_api) { /* do something */ }
  window.lib_name = root.api;
})();

You are not only exposing a function but an object with a function on it. And the function will be visible from any place where window is visible.

So, for example writing the following in the javascript console would yield different results with and without minification:

window.lib_name.perform(asdf);

With minification you would have to write:

window.lib_name.f(asdf);

Or something similar.

Remember that there can always be code outside your minification.

It is not that crucial to have the absolute minimal JS, but if IT IS that crucial for some reason (for example: aliens abducted your stepdaughter, and the only way to have her back is to minify this below 100 characters or so), you can manually replace an undesirably long property name to a shorter one, just be sure that it will not be exposed anywhere, and isn't be accessed through associative array notation (root['api']).