Multiple html files using webpack

WebpackWebpack Dev-Server

Webpack Problem Overview


I'm trying to do something in a project that I'm not sure if it is possible, I am in a wrong way or misunderstanding something. We are using webpack, and the idea is to serve more than one html file.

localhost:8181 -> serves index.html
localhost:8181/example.html -> serves example.html

I'm trying to do it by setting multiple entry points, following the documentation:

The folder structure is:

/
|- package.json
|- webpack.config.js
  /src
   |- index.html
   |- example.html
   | /js
      |- main.js
      |- example.js

Webpack.config.js:

...
entry: {
    main: './js/main.js',
    exampleEntry: './js/example.js'
},
output: {
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'build', 'target'),
    publicPath: '/',
    filename: '[name].bundle.js',
    chunkFilename: '[id].bundle_[chunkhash].js',
    sourceMapFilename: '[file].map'
},
...

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html
<head>
    ...
    <link type="text/css" href="/style/default.css">
</head>
<body>
    <div id="container"></div>
    <script src="/main.bundle.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

example.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html
<head>
    ...
    <link type="text/css" href="/style/default.css">
</head>
<body>
    ...
    <script src="/example.bundle.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Somebody knows what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you.

Webpack Solutions


Solution 1 - Webpack

See an entrypoint as the root of a tree that references many other assets like javascript modules, images, templates and so on. When you define more than one entrypoint, you basically split your assets into so called chunks to not have all your code and assets in one single bundle.

What I think you want to achieve is to have more than one "index.html" for different apps that also refer to different chunks of your assets which you already defined with your entrypoints.

Copying an index.html file or even generating one with references to these entrypoints is not handled by the entrypoint mechanism - it is the other way round. A basic approach for handling html pages is using the html-webpack-plugin which not only can copy html files but also has an extensive mechanism for templating. This is especially helpful if you want to have your bundles suffixed with a bundle hash that is pretty to avoid browser caching issues when you update your app.

As you have defined a name pattern as [id].bundle_[chunkhash].js you can no longer reference your javascript bundle as main.bundle.js as it will be called something like main.bundle_73efb6da.js.

Have a look at the html-webpack-plugin. Especially relevant for your use case:

You should probably have something like that in the end (warning: not tested)

plugins: [
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
    filename: 'index.html',
    template: 'src/index.html',
    chunks: ['main']
  }),
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
    filename: 'example.html',
    template: 'src/example.html',
    chunks: ['exampleEntry']
  })
]

Please be aware to reference the name of the entrypoint in the chunks array, so in your example this should be exampleEntry. Probably it's also a good idea to move your templates into a specific folder instead of having them in directly inside the root src folder.

Hope this helps.

Solution 2 - Webpack

To use Multiple HTML files in Webpack using HtmlWebpackPlugin :

>Modify the webpack.config.js by directly embedding the below code.

const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require('html-webpack-plugin');

let htmlPageNames = ['example1', 'example2', 'example3', 'example4'];
let multipleHtmlPlugins = htmlPageNames.map(name => {
  return new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
    template: `./src/${name}.html`, // relative path to the HTML files
    filename: `${name}.html`, // output HTML files
    chunks: [`${name}`] // respective JS files
  })
});

module.exports = {
  entry: {
    main: './js/main.js',
    example1: './js/example1.js',
    //... repeat until example 4
  },
  module: { 
       //.. your rules
  };
  plugins: [
    new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
      template: "./src/index.html",
      chunks: ['main']
    })
  ].concat(multipleHtmlPlugins)
  
};

You can add as many HTML pages as required to the htmlPageNames array. Ensure that each HTML and corresponding JS file have the same name (The above code assumes that).

Solution 3 - Webpack

You can also use Copy Webpack Plugin if you don't need two different builds, i.e., assuming that you just want to serve a different HTML with the same main.bundle.js.

The plugin is really dead simple (only tested in webpack v4):

const CopyWebpackPlugin = require('copy-webpack-plugin');

const config = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyWebpackPlugin([
      { from: './src/example.html', to: './example.html' }
    ])
  ]
}

Then in example.html you can load the build from index.html. E.g.:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html
<head>
    ...
    <title>Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div id="container"> Show an example </div>
    <script src="main.bundle.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Solution 4 - Webpack

RICHARD ABRAHAM's solution worked well for me i also added fsreaddir function for detect html files

let htmlPageNames = [];
const pages = fs.readdirSync('./src')
pages.forEach(page => {
    if (page.endsWith('.html')) {
        htmlPageNames.push(page.split('.html')[0])
    }
})
console.log(htmlPageNames);

Solution 5 - Webpack

There is another solution, assuming Webpack ^4.44.1. That is, importing the HTML in your JS/TS app.

Sample webpack.config.js

const path = require('path');
const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require('html-webpack-plugin');
const { CleanWebpackPlugin } = require('clean-webpack-plugin');


module.exports = {
    entry: { app: './src/index.ts' },

    mode: 'development',
    devtool: 'inline-source-map',
    plugins: [
        new CleanWebpackPlugin(),
        new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
            title: 'Development',
            template: path.join(path.resolve(__dirname, 'src'), 'index.ejs')
        }),
    ],
    module: {
        rules: [
            {
                test: /\.ts$/,
                use: 'ts-loader',
                include: [path.resolve(__dirname, 'src')],
                exclude: /node_modules/,
            },
            {
                test: /\.html$/i,
                use: [
                    {
                        loader: 'file-loader',
                        options: {
                            name: '[name].[ext]'
                        }
                    }
                ],
                // this exclude is required
                exclude: path.join(path.resolve(__dirname, 'src'), 'index.html')
            }
        ],
    },
    resolve: {
        extensions: ['.ts', '.js'],
    },
    devServer: {
        contentBase: path.join(__dirname, 'dist'),
        compress: true,
        port: 3900
    },
    output: {
        filename: 'bundle.js',
        path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
    },
};

Corresponding app

import './about.html';
    
console.log('this is a test'); 

index.ejs

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Question</title>
</head>
<body>
     <a href="./about.html">About</a>
</body>
</html>

about.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>About</title>
</head>
<body>
    <p>This is an about page</p>
</body>
</html>

Webpack will copy about.html to the corresponding output folder.

Solution 6 - Webpack

plugins: [
  ...templates.map(template => new HtmlWebpackPlugin(template))
]

This code would help if you have a lot of templates :)

Solution 7 - Webpack

Going back to @andreas-jägle point. Use 'html-webpack-plugin':html-webpack-plugin html-webpack-plugin. However optimise your code to avoid duplication of files:

  plugins: ['index', 'page1', 'page2'].map(
    (file) =>
      new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
        template: './src/' + file + '.html',
        inject: true,
        chunks: ['index', 'main'],
        filename: './' + file + '.html' //relative to root of the application
      })
  )

Attributions

All content for this solution is sourced from the original question on Stackoverflow.

The content on this page is licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionmiguelitompView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - WebpackAndreas JägleView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - WebpackRICHARD ABRAHAMView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - WebpackF LekschasView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - WebpackAkif KaraView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - WebpackAlex NolascoView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - WebpackPavel RodionovView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - WebpackrottitimeView Answer on Stackoverflow