Webpack Extension Reloader
A Webpack plugin to automatically reload browser extensions during development.
Installing
npm
npm install webpack-extension-reloader --save-dev
yarn
yarn add webpack-extension-reloader --dev
Solution for ...
Have your ever being annoyed while developing a browser extension, and being unable to use webpack-hot-server because it's not a web app but a browser extension?
Well, now you can have automatic reloading!
Note: This plugin doesn't allow Hot Module Replacement (HMR) yet.
What it does?
Basically something similar to what the webpack hot reload middleware does. When you change the code and the webpack
trigger and finish the compilation, your extension is notified and then reloaded using the standard browser runtime API.
Check out Hot reloading extensions using Webpack for more background.
How to use
Using as a plugin
Add webpack-extension-reloader
to the plugins section of your webpack configuration file. Note that this plugin don't outputs the manifest (at most read it to gather information).
For outputing not only the manifest.json
but other static files too, use CopyWebpackPlugin
.
const ExtensionReloader = ; plugins: from: "./src/manifest.json" from: "./src/popup.html"
You can point to your manifest.json file
...
plugins: manifest: path // ...
... or you can also use some extra options (the following are the default ones):
// webpack.dev.jsmoduleexports = mode: "development" // The plugin is activated only if mode is set to development watch: true entry: 'content-script': './my-content-script.js' background: './my-background-script.js' popup: 'popup' //... plugins: port: 9090 // Which port use to create the server reloadPage: true // Force the reload of the page also entries: // The entries used for the content/background scripts or extension pages contentScript: 'content-script' background: 'background' extensionPage: 'popup' // ...
Note I: entry
or manifest
are needed. If both are given, entry will override the information comming from manifest.json
. If none are given the default entry
values (see above) are used.
And then just run your application with Webpack in watch mode:
NODE_ENV=development webpack --config myconfig.js --mode=development --watch
Note II: You need to set --mode=development
to activate the plugin (only if you didn't set on the webpack.config.js already) then you need to run with --watch
, as the plugin will be able to sign the extension only if webpack triggers the rebuild (again, only if you didn't set on webpack.config).
Multiple Content Script and Extension Page support
If you use more than one content script or extension page in your extension, like:
entry: 'my-first-content-script': './my-first-content-script.js' 'my-second-content-script': './my-second-content-script.js' // and so on ... background: './my-background-script.js' 'popup': './popup.js' 'options': './options.js' // and so on ...
You can use the entries.contentScript
or entries.extensionPage
options as an array:
plugins: entries: contentScript: 'my-first-content-script' 'my-second-content-script' /* and so on ... */ background: 'background' extensionPage: 'popup' 'options' /* and so on ... */ // ...
CLI
If you don't want all the plugin setup, you can just use the client that comes with the package.
You can use by installing the package globally, or directly using npx
:
npx webpack-extension-reloader
If you run directly, it will use the default configurations, but if you want to customize you can call it with the following options:
npx webpack-extension-reloader --config wb.config.js --port 9080 --no-page-reload --content-script my-content.js --background bg.js --extension-page popup.js
If you have multiple content scripts or extension pages, just use comma (with no spaces) while passing the option
npx webpack-extension-reloader --content-script my-first-content.js,my-second-content.js,my-third-content.js --extension-page popup.js,options.js
Client options
name | default | description |
---|---|---|
--help | Shows this help | |
--config | webpack.config.js | The webpack configuration file path |
--port | 9090 | The port to run the server |
--manifest | The path to the extension manifest.json file | |
--content-script | content-script | The entry/entries name(s) for the content script(s) |
--background | background | The entry name for the background script |
--extension-page | popup | The entry/entries name(s) for the extension pages(s) |
--no-page-reload | Disable the auto reloading of all pages which runs the plugin |
Every time content or background scripts are modified, the extension is reloaded :)
Note: the plugin only works on development mode, so don't forget to set the NODE_ENV before run the command above
Contributing
Please before opening any issue or pull request check the contribution guide.
License
This project is under the MIT LICENSE