Managing jQuery plugin dependency in webpack

Question

I\'m using Webpack in my application, in which I create two entry points - bundle.js for all my JavaScript files/codes, and vendors.js for all libraries like jQuery and Reac

Answer 1

I got things working nicely while exposing $ and jQuery as global variables with Webpack 3.8.1 and the following.

Install jQuery as a project dependency. You can omit @3.2.1 to install the latest version or specify another version.

npm install --save jquery@3.2.1

Install expose-loader as a development dependency if not installed already.

npm install expose-loader --save-dev

Configure Webpack to load and expose jQuery for us.

// webpack.config.js
const webpack = require('webpack')

module.exports = {
  entry: [
    // entry bits
  ],
  output: {
    // output bits
  },
  module: {
    rules: [
      // any other rules
      {
        // Exposes jQuery for use outside Webpack build
        test: require.resolve('jquery'),
        use: [{
          loader: 'expose-loader',
          options: 'jQuery'
        },{
          loader: 'expose-loader',
          options: '$'
        }]
      }
    ]
  },
  plugins: [
    // Provides jQuery for other JS bundled with Webpack
    new webpack.ProvidePlugin({
      $: 'jquery',
      jQuery: 'jquery'
    })
  ]
}