php-webpack-plugin

This module will work only with Webpack 4 and above.

This Webpack plugin will create a PHP file in your output.path directory containing an associative arrays of entry points and their corresponding chunk groups.

The resulting file can be used by your PHP application to determine which files should be included when rendering your frontend of your website.

The resulting PHP file will have the following format:

<?php
return [
    'entry1' => [
        'chunk1.js' => '{publicPath}/asset1.js',
        'chunk2.js => '{publicPath}/asset2.js',
        // ... more chunks for 'entry1'
    ],
    'entry2' => [
        'chunk1.js' => '{publicPath}/asset1.js',
        'chunk2.js => '{publicPath}/asset2.js',
        // ... more chunks for entry2
    ]
];

In a ZendFramework or Laminas MVC application, this file can be used to load the scripts associated with a given rendered page by associating templates or matched routes to a given entry point.

laminas-webpack is a companion Laminas framework module to automate the rendering of script tags using the output of this plugin.

(An example application will come later.)

Install

Using NPM

$ npm install @visto9259/php-webpack-plugin

Using Yarn

$ yarn add @visto9259/php-webpack-plugin

Usage

// in your webpack config file
    
const PhpWebpackPlugin = require('php-webpack-plugin');
    
module.exports = {
    // ...
    plugins: [
         new PhpWebpackPlugin(options)
    ]
}

Available Options

filename (default: "scriptlists.php")

The filename that will contain the associative array. The file will be created in the directory set by output.path and will be appended with .php if no extension is set.

entryPoint (default: null)

The name of the entry point in the webpack configuration for which to create a script. If not set, then all the entry points are processed.

For example, considering the following webpack config:

const PhpWebpackPlugin = require('php-webpack-plugin');
    
module.exports = {
    entry: {
        main: 'index.js',
        print: 'print.js',
    },
    plugins: [
        new PhpWebpackPlugin(),
        new PhpWebpackPlugin({
            entryPoint: 'print',
            filename: 'print'
        }),
    ]
}

then 2 PHP files will be created:

  • scriptlist.php from the first instance of the plugin:
<?php
return [
   'main' => [
       'index.js' => '{publicPath}/index.js',
       'chunk2.js => '{publicPath}/chunk2.js',
       // ... more chunks
   ],
   'print' => [
       'print.js' => '{publicPath}/index.js'
       'chunk2.js => '{publicPath}/chunk2.js',
       // ... more chunks
   ]
];
  • print.php from the second instance of the plugin:
<?php
return [
  'print' => [
     'print.js' => '{publicPath}/index.js'
     'chunk2.js => '{publicPath}/chunk2.js',
     // ... more chunks
  ]
];

Future versions

I want this plugin to evolve. Ideas for future versions:

  • Add templating capability for more control on the content of the output file
  • Add hooks to extend processing using other plugins

Issues

This is a new package. Probably not free of bugs. Please raise issues and questions in the issues section.

© 2019-2022 Eric Richer (eric.richer@vistoconsulting.com)
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