webpack-dev-server on custom environment

[Jaroost]

I try to use the webpack-dev-server script on my custom environment home.

I added a new configuration in webpacker.yml

home:
  <<: *default
  compile: true

  # Reference: https://webpack.js.org/configuration/dev-server/
  dev_server:
    https: true
    host: localhost
    port: 3035
    public: localhost:3035
    hmr: false
    # Inline should be set to true if using HMR
    inline: true
    overlay: true
    compress: true
    disable_host_check: true
    use_local_ip: false
    quiet: false
    headers:
      'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*'
    watch_options:
      ignored: /node_modules/

Then I start the ruby .\bin\webpack-dev-server (I am on Windows10)

The script compiles on demand works and the server is up and running at https://localhost:3035

But when I make changes, the navigator doesn't refresh automatically and rails server compile instead of the on demande script.

Do i miss something?

PS: In development environment, all works just fine

[gauravtiwari]

@Jaroost Could you set compile to false in home environment please? If I understood correctly you want to use dev server in home environment instead of on demand compiler right?

[Jaroost]

I want to use the webpack-dev-server script in my home environnent (it's a special development environment).

I tried to change complie to false but it doesn't work.

Am i clearer?

[akaspick]

@Jaroost Custom environments are somewhat broken in webpacker. See #1274

You'll need a config/webpack/home.js file for your environment (it used to default to dev or prod before) and I think you need to run the server like RAILS_ENV=home NODE_ENV=development bin/webpack-dev-server. Custom environments used to work, but somewhere along the line they've stopped working out of the box.

[gauravtiwari]

Just released 3.4.0 and there is some documentation added in README.

[Jaroost]

@gauravtiwari
I think the custom environment doesn't work corectly:

I explain my current situation:

• I have 2 development environments (development and home)

• Development is my configuration at work: I use Oracle database, LDAP login, SMTP server, Some network connexions.

• Home is my configuration at home: I use Mysql database, Database login, gmail SMTP, Some other network connexions.

So i need to use the webpack-dev-server in this 2 enviroments.

Actually this doesn't work in webpacker for 2 reasons:

the fetch method in lib/webpacker/dev_server.rb:

def fetch(key)
  ENV["WEBPACKER_DEV_SERVER_#{key.upcase}"] || config.dev_server.fetch(key, defaults[key])
end

config.dev_server.fetch(key, defaults[key]) will throw an exception because defaults is nil

defaults is nil in that case because in configuration.rb the defaults methods try to retreive defaults values from install/config/webpacker.yml using the current enviroment home and this methods will retrurn an empty hash

def defaults
      @defaults ||= \
        HashWithIndifferentAccess.new(YAML.load_file(File.expand_path("../../install/config/webpacker.yml", __FILE__))[env])
    end

but in that case, we can set in custom environment (home.rb) the following enviornment variables:

ENV['WEBPACKER_DEV_SERVER_HOST']='localhost'
ENV['WEBPACKER_DEV_SERVER_PORT']='3035'

The second problem is in lib/webpacker/railtie.rb:

When we retreive pack files with javascript_pack_tag or stylesheet_pack_tag rails need to know that we need files from the webpacker-dev-server instead of plain files so to do that we use the dev_server_proxy

initializer "webpacker.proxy" do |app|
    if Rails.env.development?
      app.middleware.insert_before 0,
        Rails::VERSION::MAJOR >= 5 ?
          Webpacker::DevServerProxy : "Webpacker::DevServerProxy", ssl_verify_none: true
    end
  end

In case of a custom environment, the proxy will never be used. So to patch this i just replace the Rails.env.development? to 'Webpacker.dev_server.running?'

like this, home and webpack-dev-server works but i think that this issue is not resolved.

[gauravtiwari]

@Jaroost Do you have a home environment declared in webpacker.yml?

[Jaroost]

@gauravtiwari Yes I have

Maybe it's a Windows issue

[gauravtiwari]

@Jaroost Thanks for confirming. Will take a look at this later today.

[akaspick]

@gauravtiwari Just a fyi, but this now works for my staging env.