How to serve my React webapp on static server after using Webpack?

Question

I have a React Redux app and am trying to put it on a static file server (so the user should just be able to go to http://myurl.com/thePath/index.html and the app should load). Right now I'm using webpack to bundle my assets. Here is my webpack build file:

webpack.config.prod.js:

import webpack from 'webpack';
import ExtractTextPlugin from 'extract-text-webpack-plugin';
import WebpackMd5Hash from 'webpack-md5-hash';
import HtmlWebpackPlugin from 'html-webpack-plugin';
import autoprefixer from 'autoprefixer';
import path from 'path';

const GLOBALS = {
  'process.env.NODE_ENV': JSON.stringify('production'),
  __DEV__: false
};

export default {
  resolve: {
    extensions: ['', '.js', '.jsx']
  },
  debug: true,
  devtool: 'source-map', // more info:https://webpack.github.io/docs/build-performance.html#sourcemaps and https://webpack.github.io/docs/configuration.html#devtool
  noInfo: true, // set to false to see a list of every file being bundled.
  entry: path.resolve(__dirname, 'src/index'),
  target: 'web', // necessary per https://webpack.github.io/docs/testing.html#compile-and-test
  output: {
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
    publicPath: '/thePath/',
    filename: '[name].[chunkhash].js'
  },
  plugins: [
    // Hash the files using MD5 so that their names change when the content changes.
    new WebpackMd5Hash(),

    // Optimize the order that items are bundled. This assures the hash is deterministic.
    new webpack.optimize.OccurenceOrderPlugin(),

    // Tells React to build in prod mode. https://facebook.github.io/react/downloads.html
    new webpack.DefinePlugin(GLOBALS),

    // Generate an external css file with a hash in the filename
    new ExtractTextPlugin('[name].[contenthash].css'),

    // Generate HTML file that contains references to generated bundles. See here for how this works: https://github.com/ampedandwired/html-webpack-plugin#basic-usage
    new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
      template: 'src/index.ejs',
      minify: {
        removeComments: true,
        collapseWhitespace: true,
        removeRedundantAttributes: true,
        useShortDoctype: true,
        removeEmptyAttributes: true,
        removeStyleLinkTypeAttributes: true,
        keepClosingSlash: true,
        minifyJS: true,
        minifyCSS: true,
        minifyURLs: true
      },
      inject: true,
      // Note that you can add custom options here if you need to handle other custom logic in index.html
      // To track JavaScript errors via TrackJS, sign up for a free trial at TrackJS.com and enter your token below.
      trackJSToken: ''
    }),

    // Eliminate duplicate packages when generating bundle
    new webpack.optimize.DedupePlugin(),

    // Minify JS
    new webpack.optimize.UglifyJsPlugin()
  ],
  module: {
    loaders: [
      {test: /\.jsx?$/, exclude: /node_modules/, loader: 'babel'},
      {test: /\.(eot|woff|woff2|svg|ttf)([\?]?.*)$/, loader: "file-loader" },
      {test: /\.(jpe?g|png|gif)$/i, loader: 'file?name=[name].[ext]'},
      {test: /\.ico$/, loader: 'file?name=[name].[ext]'},
      {test: /(\.css|\.scss)$/, loader: ExtractTextPlugin.extract('css?sourceMap!postcss!sass?sourceMap')}
    ]
  },
  postcss: ()=> [autoprefixer]
};

So webpack bundles everything fine, but when I put the files it outputs into /thePath/ and then go to http://myurl.com/thePath/index.html, I get an empty white screen. It loads the CSS and JS resources but nothing shows up. It loads fine when it is served through webpack's dev server. How can I resolve this?

Answer 1

Answer can be found here: Why is React Webpack production build showing Blank page?

Long story short, when using browserHistory with react-router, your server must be configured to support it. If your server is not configured to support it, you must use hashHistory.