Webpack - Excluding node_modules with also keep a separated browser and server management

Question

(webpack.config.js file content below)

I'm trying to make a webpack exclusion on node modules.

I found that using webpack-node-externals works for it but using that on my common config causes this other error: Require is not defined on reflect-metadata - __webpack_require__ issue

So... I was wondering how can i exclude webpack bundling also on the browser side without getting any issue.

My webpack version: 3.11.0

---

webpack-config.js

const path = require('path');    
const webpack = require('webpack');
const merge = require('webpack-merge');
const AotPlugin = require('@ngtools/webpack').AotPlugin;
const CheckerPlugin = require('awesome-typescript-loader').CheckerPlugin;

var nodeExternals = require('webpack-node-externals');

module.exports = (env) => {
    // Configuration in common to both client-side and server-side bundles
    const isDevBuild = !(env && env.prod);
    const sharedConfig = {

        //externals: [nodeExternals()], // in order to ignore all modules in node_modules folder

        stats: { modules: false },
        context: __dirname,
        resolve: { extensions: [ '.js', '.ts' ] },
        output: {
            filename: '[name].js',
            publicPath: 'dist/' // Webpack dev middleware, if enabled, handles requests for this URL prefix
        },
        module: {
            rules: [
                { test: /\.ts$/, use: isDevBuild ? ['awesome-typescript-loader?silent=true', 'angular2-template-loader', 'angular2-router-loader'] : '@ngtools/webpack' },
                { test: /\.html$/, use: 'html-loader?minimize=false' },
                { test: /\.css$/, use: [ 'to-string-loader', 'style-loader', isDevBuild ? 'css-loader' : 'css-loader?minimize' ] },
                { test: /\.(png|jpg|jpeg|gif|svg)$/, use: 'url-loader?limit=25000' }
            ]
        },
        plugins: [new CheckerPlugin()]
    };

    // Configuration for client-side bundle suitable for running in browsers
    const clientBundleOutputDir = './wwwroot/dist';
    const clientBundleConfig = merge(sharedConfig, {
        entry: { 'main-client': './ClientApp/boot.browser.ts' },
        output: { path: path.join(__dirname, clientBundleOutputDir) },
        plugins: [
            new webpack.DllReferencePlugin({
                context: __dirname,
                manifest: require('./wwwroot/dist/vendor-manifest.json')
            })
        ].concat(isDevBuild ? [
            // Plugins that apply in development builds only
            new webpack.SourceMapDevToolPlugin({
                filename: '[file].map', // Remove this line if you prefer inline source maps
                moduleFilenameTemplate: path.relative(clientBundleOutputDir, '[resourcePath]') // Point sourcemap entries to the original file locations on disk
            })
        ] : [
            // Plugins that apply in production builds only
            new webpack.optimize.UglifyJsPlugin(),
            new AotPlugin({
                tsConfigPath: './tsconfig.json',
                entryModule: path.join(__dirname, 'ClientApp/app/app.browser.module#AppModule'),
                exclude: ['./**/*.server.ts']
            })
        ])
    });

    // Configuration for server-side (prerendering) bundle suitable for running in Node
    const serverBundleConfig = merge(sharedConfig, {
        resolve: { mainFields: ['main'] },
        entry: { 'main-server': './ClientApp/boot.server.ts' },
        plugins: [
            new webpack.DllReferencePlugin({
                context: __dirname,
                manifest: require('./ClientApp/dist/vendor-manifest.json'),
                sourceType: 'commonjs2',
                name: './vendor'
            })
        ].concat(isDevBuild ? [] : [
            // Plugins that apply in production builds only
            new AotPlugin({
                tsConfigPath: './tsconfig.json',
                entryModule: path.join(__dirname, 'ClientApp/app/app.server.module#AppModule'),
                exclude: ['./**/*.browser.ts']
            })
        ]),
        output: {
            libraryTarget: 'commonjs',
            path: path.join(__dirname, './ClientApp/dist')
        },

        target: 'node',
externals: [nodeExternals()], // in order to ignore all modules in node_modules folder,
            devtool: 'inline-source-map'
        });

    return [clientBundleConfig, serverBundleConfig];
};

Answer 1

GOT IT!

Before posting my solution, I'd like to thanks Aluan Haddad for his useful comment in my question above.

As suggested by Aluan, in fact, the problem was related to the need to use also a module loader, more than a module bundler.

So, the steps that I followed are these:

• Installing requireJS ==> http://requirejs.org/docs/node.html
• Removing externals: [nodeExternals()], // in order to ignore all modules in node_modules folder from my common webpack configuration and adding it under my server configuration (done before my question, but it's a really important step) [see webpack.config.js content in the question]
• Adding target: 'node', before my externals point above, under my server side section (done before my question, but it's a really important step) [see webpack.config.js content in the question]
  This makes sure that browser side keeps target:'web' (default target), and target becomes node just for the server.
• launched webpack config vendor command manually from powershell webpack --config webpack.config.vendor.js
• launched webpack config command manually from powershell webpack --config webpack.config.js

That worked for me! Hope It will works also for anyone else reading this question and encountering this issue!