Reduciendo el tamaño del bundle

How to optimize your projects by minimizing dependencies?

In application development, it is common to face the challenge of managing dependencies efficiently. It is crucial to improve performance and optimize the delivery of our applications. In this article, we will explore strategies and tools to identify and reduce the impact of dependencies in our projects. Get ready to discover how to optimize your code effectively.

What tools can we use to analyze dependencies?

There are several tools and services that make it easier to analyze the impact of dependencies in our project:

• Bundle Fogia: It is an online service that allows us to check how much each library influences the size of our bundle before and after installing them.

• Webpack and its analysis plugin: By running an analysis with --analyze, we can directly see the impact of each dependency on our application.

What is the impact of loading complete libraries unnecessarily?

A common mistake is to load full libraries when few methods are used. Let's analyze the case of Lodash:

import _ from 'lodash'let result = _.get(data, 'key');

In the above example, we are importing the entire Lodash library when we only use the .get() method. This results in a waste of resources, as we load a lot of functionality that we don't need.

How to apply Tree Shaking effectively?

To avoid loading unnecessary code, we can employ tree shaking, a technique that helps eliminate dead code during the build process. For that, it is essential to use a proper syntax:

import get from 'lodash/get'let result = get(data, 'key');

By using method-specific import, we enable Webpack to perform tree shaking, including only the necessary parts of the library in the bundle. The syntax change as shown significantly reduces the bundle weight.

What to do with libraries that do not support tree shaking?

For example, the Moment.js library does not support tree shaking. In this case, we must look for alternative libraries that are more efficient. A good option is date-fns:

Steps to replace Moment.js with date-fns:

1. Uninstall Moment.js:

   npm uninstall moment

2. Install date-fns:

   npm install date-fns

3. Replace Moment.js in the code:

   import { formatDistance, parseISO } from 'date-fns'
   let result = formatDistance(parseISO(date), new Date(), { addSuffix: true });

What results to expect when applying optimizations?

When implementing these strategies, the bundle weight of your project can make a world of difference. The result is that the bundle becomes much lighter, reducing the size from unnecessary Gigabytes (GB) to a few Kilobytes (KB), which is crucial for improving performance and user experience. The change in the final bundle structure will be substantial:

• Initial weight: 1.5 MB.
• Weight after optimization: 30 KB.

These measures not only optimize the loading time, but also the efficiency of your application by moving less data. Always remember to evaluate and decide if a library fits the real needs of your project.