What is ‘typeof define === ‘function’ && define[‘amd’]’ used for?

What purpose does the following code serve? What does factory function do here? Here root is window object. Is factory a default java script function? In what kind of scenarios this type of code can be used. This code is from toggle.js from Simon Tabor. Zepto and ender are libraries. Is this mostly used in libraries.

   if (typeof define === 'function' && define['amd']) {
        define(['jquery'], factory);
     } else {
      factory(root['jQuery'] || root['Zepto'] || root['ender'] || root['$']|| $);
    }

Answer

This code checks for the presence of require.js, a JavaScript dependency management library.

If ‘define’ is not undefined and it is a function and ‘amd’ (asynchronous module definition) is also defined then the code assumes that require.js is in play.

If this is so then it defines ‘factory’ and passes jQuery to it as a dependency. Otherwise it sets up the dependencies that the code needs by attaching them to the root object.

As for what ‘factory’ is: it is not defined by the Javascript framework, it will be a function in the same file most likely. It will take the parameter jQuery.