Webpack

Last updated
Webpack
Developer(s) Tobias Koppers, Sean Larkin, Johannes Ewald, Juho Vepsäläinen, Kees Kluskens, and Webpack contributors
Initial release19 February 2014;9 years ago (2014-02-19) [1]
Stable release
5.77.0 [2]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 29 March 2023;19 days ago (29 March 2023)
Repository github.com/webpack/webpack
Written in JavaScript
Operating system Linux, macOS, Windows
Platform Node.js
License MIT License [3] [4]
Website webpack.js.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Webpack is a free and open-source module bundler for JavaScript. [5] [6] [7] [8] It is made primarily for JavaScript, but it can transform front-end assets such as HTML, CSS, and images if the corresponding loaders are included. [9] Webpack takes modules with dependencies and generates static assets representing those modules. [10]

Contents

Webpack takes the dependencies and generates a dependency graph allowing web developers to use a modular approach for their web application development purposes. It can be used from the command line or can be configured using a configuration file which is named webpack.config.js. This file defines rules, plugins, etc., for a project. (Webpack is highly extensible via rules which allow developers to write custom tasks that they want to perform when bundling files together.)

Node.js is required to use Webpack.

Webpack provides code on demand using the moniker code splitting. Two similar techniques are supported by Webpack when it comes to dynamic code splitting. The first and recommended approach is to use the import() syntax that conforms to the ECMAScript proposal for dynamic imports. The legacy, Webpack-specific approach is to use require.ensure. [11]

Webpack development server

Webpack also provides a built-in development server, webpack-dev-server, that can be used as an HTTP server for serving files while developing. It also provides the capability to use hot module replacement (HMR), which updates code on a webpage without requiring the developer to reload the page.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Release Date of Version 1.0.0" . Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  2. ↑ "Release 5.77.0". 29 March 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  3. ↑ "LICENSE file on GitHub" . Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  4. ↑ "License field from webpack - npm" . Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  5. ↑ "Web Performance Optimization with webpack". Google Inc. Retrieved 16 Oct 2018.
  6. ↑ "A Beginner's Guide to webpack 4 and Module Bundling". SitePoint . Retrieved 16 Oct 2018.
  7. ↑ "Webpack 4.0 Release Brings Simplified Configuration, WebAssembly Support, and Big Performance Boost". InfoQ. Retrieved 16 Oct 2018.
  8. ↑ "High-performance webpack config for front-end delivery". Codementor . Retrieved 16 Oct 2018.
  9. ↑ "What is webpack". SurviveJS. Retrieved 16 Oct 2018.
  10. ↑ "What is webpack". GitHub. Retrieved 25 Feb 2018.
  11. ↑ "Dynamic imports". webpack. Retrieved 6 Jun 2022.
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