I started using Webpack module bundler recently and thought I would document some of my learning. In the past couple of posts I wrote about bundling JavaScript projects using Browserify module bundlers. Webpack can be used as a replacement for Browserify; but it has some nice additional features like bundling of static files and code splitting.
This post is not meant to be tutorial on Webpack, I just wanted to describe how to configure Webpack, specifically using Webpack loaders for Bablel and ReactJS. I will show how to build a JS project using standalone Webpack and also using Webpack APIs in Gulp. The project is available on Github at https://github.com/ramkulkarni1/WebpackBlitzReactStarter
Module Dependencies
Node packages required to build the project are, of course, in package.json. If you are using above starter project from Github, then run ‘npm install’ to install all the required packages. Else make sure you install all the packages listed in devDependencies of package.json . The list contains babel, required babel presets for ES6 and ReactJS, webpack and webpack-dev-server, webpack loaders for babel, LESS and CSS.
Webpack Configuration
Webpack configuration is specified in webpack.config.js. This config file is read when you run webpack or webpack-dev-server command. Optional gulpfile.js (to build the project using Gulp) also loads this file and passes to Webpack APIs.
Here is a brief description of some of the entries in the config file – Continue reading “Setting up Webpack + Babel + ReactJS”