The limitation relates to the simplified CommonJS syntax vs. the normal callback syntax:
Loading a module is inherently an asynchronous process due to the unknown timing of downloading it. However, RequireJS in emulation of the server-side CommonJS spec tries to give you a simplified syntax. When you do something like this:
var foomodule = require('foo');
// do something with fooModule
What's happening behind the scenes is that RequireJS is looking at the body of your function code and parsing out that you need 'foo' and loading it prior to your function execution. However, when a variable or anything other than a simple string, such as your example...
var module = require(path); // Call RequireJS require
...then Require is unable to parse this out and automatically convert it. The solution is to convert to the callback syntax;
var moduleName = 'foo';
require([moduleName], function(fooModule){
// do something with fooModule
})
Given the above, here is one possible rewrite of your 2nd example to use the standard syntax:
define(['dyn_modules'], function (dynModules) {
require(dynModules, function(){
// use arguments since you don't know how many modules you're getting in the callback
for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++){
var mymodule = arguments[i];
// do something with mymodule...
}
});
});
EDIT: From your own answer, I see you're using underscore/lodash, so using _.values and _.object can simplify the looping through arguments array as above.