Architecture

I would like to share the code between client and server side. I have defined aliases in webpack config:

resolve: {
    // Absolute paths: https://github.com/webpack/webpack/issues/109
    alias: {
        server : absPath('/src/server/'),
        app    : absPath('/src/app/'),
        client : absPath('/src/client/'),
    }
},

      

        
        
        
      

    

Problem

Now, on the server side, I need to enable webpack to recognize the correct paths when I need a file. for example

require('app/somefile.js')

      

        
        
        
      

    

will fail in pure node.js because it can't find the app folder.

What I need (read the section "What I need to update")

I need to be able to use webpack aliases. I was thinking about package the whole backend without a file from node_modules. So when starting the server it will use node_modules from the node_modules folder instead of the minijs file (why? 1st: this doesn't work.2nd: bad because node_modules are compiled on the platform, so I don't want my win files on unix server).

Output:

• Compiled server.js
  
  file without node_modules included.
• Let's server.js
  
  use node_modules;

What do I need to update

As I noticed at https://github.com/webpack/webpack/issues/135 , creating a bundled server.js will mess up all the io activity file paths.

A better idea would be to leave the node.js server files as they are, but replace the method require

provided with a custom webpack require

that takes account of account configurations like aliases (others?) .. Can be done like require .js made to run on node.js server.

What i tried

By adding this plugin to webpack

 new webpack.optimize.CommonsChunkPlugin(/* chunkName= */"ignore", /* filename= */"server.bundle.js")

      

        
        
        
      

    

Entries:

entry: {
    client: "./src/client/index.js",
    server: "./src/server/index.js",
    ignore: ['the_only_node_module'] // But I need to do that for every node_module
},

      

        
        
        
      

    

It will create a server.js file that only contains my server code. Then server.bundle.js is created which is not used. But the problem is that webpack includes the function webpackJsonp

in the file server.bundle.js

. Therefore, both the client and the server will not work.

This should be a way to just disable node_modules for one entry.

What I tried # 2

I managed to exclude the path, but it doesn't work because it's already changed. So the source looks like require(3)

instead of require('my-module')

. Each line requires conversion to integer, so it doesn't work.

For this to work, I also need to fix the required function that webpack exports to add the required node.js function (this is easy to do manually, but should be done automatically).

What I tried # 3

In webpack config:

{target: "node"}

      

        
        
        
      

    

This only adds the variable exports

(not sure what else it does, because I was differentiating the output).

What I tried # 4 (almost there)

Using

require.ensure('my_module')

      

        
        
        
      

    

and then replacing all occurrences r(2).ensure

with the query. I don't know if the part is r(2)

always the same and because of this it cannot be automated.

solved

Thanks to ColCh for enlightening me on how to do it.

require = require('enhanced-require')(module, require('../../webpack.config'));

      

        
        
        
      

    

By changing the method require

in node.js, it will make node.js pass everything, requiring through the webpack function require

that allows us to use aliases and other gifts! Thanks ColCh!

Related

• https://www.bountysource.com/issues/1660629-what-s-the-right-way-to-use-webpack-specific-functionality-in-node-js
• https://github.com/webpack/webpack/issues/135
• http://webpack.github.io/docs/configuration.html#target
• https://github.com/webpack/webpack/issues/458
• How can I create "web" and "node" versions of a package at the same time using Webpack?
• http://nerds.airbnb.com/isomorphic-javascript-future-web-apps/

thank