Tree-shaking not properly documented

[Fuzzyma]

Describe the bug

Following the guide on the website, you just have to import { faker } from '@faker-js/faker';. That doesn't work. It actually makes it worse by adding a whopping 1/2MB to the bundle size.

The section above says, that you should only import what you need. Well I tried that as well:

import { address } from '@faker-js/faker' // error, no export address
import address from '@faker-js/faker/address'

address.city() // error, method not defined

So is this is supposed to work? Looking at the code, I can see why this is not treeshakeable. But why is it advertized?

Reproduction

I am using vite. So bundling is done by rollup. Using faker anywhere leads to the whole faker lib in your bundle

Additional Info

No response

[ST-DDT]

This feature was supposedly added in #152
@Shinigami92 Do you have a hint what might have went wrong in the meantime/this usecase?

[Shinigami92]

import { faker } from '@faker-js/faker'; should work from 6.0.0-alpha.5 I think
Before it was import faker from '@faker-js/faker'; or import * faker from '@faker-js/faker';
And that's what I currently mean by "tree-shakeable"
Beside that it's currently possible to use and load only a specific locale with fallback to en by using e.g.: import fakerDe from '@faker-js/faker/locale/de';

This will and should reduce the loaded size to only the needed locale.

---

Something like import { address } from '@faker-js/faker'; will not work and it would be a long way to support something like this (maybe someday in v8, v9 or v10 🤷)
But as e.g. address needs the faker instance in it's constructor and referencing stuff around, it's not possible to just give only the address module back.

[ST-DDT]

Or does it only refer to per language shaking?
Only support a single locale by using:

import fakerDe from "@faker-js/faker/locale/de";
console.log("a", fakerDe.name.jobType()); // Orchestrator

[ST-DDT]

We should be more explicit about the treeshaking behavior/limitations in our docs to avoid any confusion about this in the future.

The documentation should be updated to contain:

• Information about the things that support treeshaking (locale specific fakers only AFAICT)
• Estimates on how much you can safe by using the feature
• An example/hint using only a specific locale.

[Fuzzyma]

Well I DID use import {faker} from ... and it increased my bundle size compared to the last version of the original faker. Is it including all locales like this? I only want english.

Also: yes, proper treeshaking isn't that easy but also isn't that hard. separating the different faker modules would already help a lot. Ofc, the premium would be to only import the actual functions you need e.g. import {city} from '@faker-js/faker/address'

[Shinigami92]

I only want english.

@Fuzzyma Please try to use import fakerEn from '@faker-js/faker/locale/en'; for now

[ST-DDT]

Well I DID use import {faker} from ... and it increased my bundle size compared to the last version of the original faker.

Probably because we link a few more entries now that existed in the sources but where never added to the translation tree.

Is it including all locales like this?

Yes.

faker/src/index.ts

Lines 150 to 152 in 773bcec

	export const faker: Faker = new Faker({
	locales: allLocales,
	});

EDIT: @Shinigami92 is always a few seconds faster...