webpack-isomorphic-compiler

webpack-isomorphic-compiler

A compiler that makes your life easier if you are building isomorphic webpack powered apps, that is, single page applications with server-side rendering.

Installation

$ npm install webpack-isomorphic-compiler --save-dev

The current version only works with webpack v2.x.x.

Motivation

Building applications powered by webpack with server-side rendering (isomorphic/universal apps) is hard:

• When making a production build, you must compile both the client and server
• When developing, we want to rebuild the client & server whenever code changes and offer hot module replacement

This is complex, especially setting up the development server:

• You must wait for both compilers to finish, delaying the server responses until then
• If the client or server compilation fails, an error page should be served
• When the server compilations succeeds, we must re-require our server bundle to get its new exports
• The client and server compilers must be in sync and live in perfect harmony

To solve the compilation part, webpack-isomorphic-compiler offers an aggregated compiler that syncs up the client and server compilation. To solve the development part, webpack-isomorphic-dev-middleware offers an express middleware that integrates seamlessly with webpack-isomorphic-compiler.

But why not use the multi-compiler mode from webpack? Glad you ask. Webpack's MultiCompiler doesn't offer all the plugin handlers that a single Compiler does, which makes it difficult to know what's happening under the hood. For instance, it's hard to known when a compilation starts when using .watch(). Additionally, it has some issues when used with webpack-dev-middleware.

webpack-isomorphic-compiler solves the isomorphic compilation in a clear way and with a saner API.

API

webpackIsomorphicCompiler(clientConfig, serverConfig)

Creates an aggregated compiler that wraps both client and server webpack compilers.

const webpackIsomorphicCompiler = require('webpack-isomorphic-compiler');

const clientConfig = /* ... */;
const serverConfig = /* ... */;
const compiler = webpackIsomorphicCompiler(clientConfig, serverConfig);

The compiler inherits from EventEmitter and emits the following events:

Name	Description	Argument
begin	Emitted when a compilation starts
error	Emitted when the compilation fails	err
end	Emitted when the compilation completes successfully	stats

compiler
.on('begin', () => console.log('Compilation started'))
.on('end', (stats) => {
    console.log('Compilation finished successfully');
    console.log('Client stats', stats.client);
    console.log('Server stats', stats.server);
})
.on('error', (err) => {
    console.log('Compilation failed')
    console.log(err.message);
    console.log(err.stats.toString());
})

.run([options])

Compiles both the client & server.
Returns a promise that fulfills with a stats object or is rejected with an error.

This is similar to webpack's run() method, except that it returns a promise which gets rejected if stats contains errors.

compiler.run()
.then((stats) => {
    // stats = {
    //   client,
    //   server,
    // }
})
.catch((err) => {
    // err = {
    //   message: 'Error message',
    //   [stats]: <webpack-stats>
    // }
});

Available options:

Name	Description	Type	Default
report	Enable reporting	boolean/object	false

.watch([options], [handler])

Starts watching for changes and compiles on-the-fly.
Returns itself to allow chaining.

Calls handler everytime the compilation fails or succeeds. This is similar to webpack's watch() method, except that handler gets called with an error if stats contains errors.

Available options:

Name	Description	Type	Default
poll	Use polling instead of native watchers	boolean	false
aggregateTimeout	Wait so long for more changes (ms)	err	200
report	Enable reporting	boolean/object	false

compiler.watch((err, stats) => {
    // err = {
    //   message: 'Error message',
    //   [stats]: <webpack-stats>
    // }
    // stats = {
    //   client,
    //   server,
    // }
});

.unwatch()

Stops watching for changes.
Returns a promise that fulfills when done.

.isCompiling()

Returns a boolean indicating if the code is being compiled.

.getError()

Returns the compilation error or null if none.

.getStats()

Returns the compilation stats object ({ client, server }) or null if it failed or not yet available.

Client & server webpack related properties

Both client and server properties contain their webpack configs & compilers.

Name	Description	Type
webpackCompiler	The client's webpack compiler	Compiler
webpackConfig	The client's webpack config	object

Accessing webpack compiler public methods is NOT allowed and will throw an error.

Reporter

Both run() and watch() accepts a report option that, when enabled, prints information related to the compilation process. The option can be a boolean or an object that maps to the following options:

Name	Description	Type	Default
humanErrors	Detects human errors related to webpack configuration mistakes	boolean	true
stats	Display webpack stats after each successful compilation	boolean/string (true, false or once)	true
statsOptions	Which stats to display, see stats.toString()	sane default

Additionally, you may use the reporter manually through the exported reporter function on the webpack-isomorphic-compiler module.

Tests

$ npm test
$ npm test:watch during development

License

MIT License