Introduction to Browserlist

Browserlist is a powerful tool that allows developers to specify target browsers for their applications. It assists in optimizing and ensuring compatibility across different web browsers by providing a variety of APIs. In this guide, we will explore the most useful Browserlist APIs with practical code snippets and an application example that integrates these features.

Basic Configuration

  
    // Specifying target browsers in a package.json file:
    {
      "browserslist": [
        "> 1%",
        "last 2 versions",
        "not dead"
      ]
    }

    // Alternatively, using a .browserslistrc file:
    > 1%
    last 2 versions
    not dead
  

Directly from Node.js

  
    const browserslist = require('browserslist');

    // Querying browser versions
    let browsers = browserslist('> 1%, last 2 versions, not dead');
    console.log(browsers);
  

Using Browserlist with Autoprefixer

  
    const autoprefixer = require('autoprefixer');
    const postcss = require('postcss');

    postcss([autoprefixer]).process(css).then(result => {
      console.log(result.css);
    });
  

Custom Build Tools

  
    const browserslist = require('browserslist');

    const supportedBrowsers = browserslist('> 1%, last 2 versions, not dead');
    console.log(`Supported browsers: ${supportedBrowsers.join(', ')}`);
  

Advanced Queries

  
    // Browsers with market share greater than 0.5%
    let query = '> 0.5%';

    // Excluding certain browsers
    let exclusion = 'not ie <= 8';
    let browsers = browserslist(`${query}, ${exclusion}`);
    console.log(browsers);
  

Supporting Specific Browsers

  
    // Supporting the latest one version of Chrome
    let query = 'last 1 Chrome version';
    let browsers = browserslist(query);
    console.log(browsers);
  

App Example

With this basic understanding of Browserlist, let's create an example application that integrates these APIs.

  
    // Install necessary packages
    // npm install browserslist autoprefixer postcss

    const browserslist = require('browserslist');
    const autoprefixer = require('autoprefixer');
    const postcss = require('postcss');

    // CSS to process
    const css = `
      .box {
        display: flex;
      }
    `;

    // Browserslist query
    const supportedBrowsers = browserslist('> 1%, last 2 versions, not dead');

    // Processing CSS with Autoprefixer using Browserlist config
    postcss([autoprefixer({ overrideBrowserslist: supportedBrowsers })])
      .process(css)
      .then(result => {
        console.log(result.css);
      });

    // Output which browsers are supported
    console.log(`Supported browsers: ${supportedBrowsers.join(', ')}`);
  

This example demonstrates how to query browser support and utilize Autoprefixer to handle vendor prefixes based on the specified browser support matrix.

For comprehensive browser compatibility management, Browserlist proves to be an invaluable tool in any web development workflow.

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