ES6 modules & classes with Webpack: quick setup & usage

For setting up and using ES6 Modules with webpack perform the following steps:

1. quicky setup js-sdk library using webpack
2. Install babel-loader and its dependencies.
   npm install babel-loader babel-core babel-preset-env --save-dev
Here babel-loader is the main package for invoking Babel transpilation. It requires babel-core for apis. babel-presets has the plugin for module-loading.
3. Configure webpack.config.js
4. vi index.js


   //Class definition
   export default class Imax {
     get movies() {
       return ['Logan', 'Beauty and the Beast'];
     }
     bookMovie(name) {
       return `Thank you for booking with Imax. Booking ID is ASDFFG|${name}`;
     }
   }
   
   module.exports = new Imax();

5. webpack // build library
6. webpack-dev-server  // host library. (hosted locally here)
7. Client side:

   $.getScript('//localhost:8080/assets/imax.js').then(() => {
       let selectedMovie = Imax.movie[0];
       console.log('Movie list: ', Imax.bookMovie(selectedMovie));
    });
   

8. O/P:
   Thank you for booking with Imax. Booking ID is ASDFFG|Logan

References:

• http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/
• https://github.com/babel/babel-loader
• http://es6-features.org/

Quickly setup JS SDK library using Webpack

Technology used:

• node version :  6.9.4
• npm version :  3.8.5
• webpack      :  2.2.1
• webpack-dev-server : 2.4.1

Steps:

• mkdir imax //project name
• cd imax
• npm init
• npm install webpack --save-dev
• npm install webpack-dev-server --save-dev //for development use only
  webpack-dev-server helps serve the webpack bundle.
• vi index.js

  module.exports = { 
    greetings: 'Welcome to IMAX movie booking', 
    movies: ['Logan', 'Beauty and the Beast', 'Transformers'] 
  }

• Now on running  npm run build, the following error occurs,

  No configuration file found and no output filename configured via 
  CLI option. A configuration file could be named 'webpack.config.js' 
  in the current directory. Use --help to display the CLI options.

  webpack requires webpack.config.js file.

• vi webpack.config.js


  module.exports = {
      entry: './index.js',        //app entry point
      output: {
          path: 'dist',           //output directory absolute path
          publicPath: '/assets/', //public URL address of output files
          filename: 'imax.js',    //output-bundle filename
          library: 'Imax'         //helps export output-bundle as library
      }
  }

The configuration is done. Now execute the below commands,

• npm run build
  It internally invokes webpack, which compiles & bundles the library file.
• npm start
  It starts the dev server & serves the bundled file at http://localhost:8080/assets/imax.js

Client side JS:

$.getScript('//localhost:8080/assets/imax.js').then(() => {
    console.log(Imax.greetings);
    console.log('Movie list: ', Imax.movies);
 });

You can also directly add the script in html and use the library functions.

Output:

Welcome to IMAX movie booking
Movie list: ['Logan', 'Beauty and the Beast', 'Transformers']

References:

• https://webpack.github.io/docs/configuration.html
• https://webpack.github.io/docs/webpack-dev-server.html