Script Extension for HTML Webpack Plugin

Enhances html-webpack-plugin functionality with different deployment options for your scripts including:

• async attribute;
• defer attribute;
• type="module" attribute;
• inlining;
• preload resource hint;
• prefetch resource hint

This is an extension plugin for the webpack plugin html-webpack-plugin - a plugin that simplifies the creation of HTML files to serve your webpack bundles.

The raw html-webpack-plugin incorporates all webpack-generated javascipt as synchronous<script> elements in the generated html. This plugin allows you to add attributes to these elements or even to inline the code in the element.

Installation

You must be running webpack on node 4+.

Install the plugin with npm:

$ npm install --save-dev script-ext-html-webpack-plugin

You may see an UNMET PEER DEPENDENCY warning for webpack.

This is fine; in testing, we dynamically download multiple versions of webpack (via the dynavers module).

Basic Usage

Add the plugin to your webpack config as follows:

plugins: [
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin(),
  new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin()
]  

The above configuration will actually do nothing due to the configuration defaults. Some more useful scenarios:

All scripts set to async:

plugins: [
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin(),
  new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin({
    defaultAttribute: 'async'
  })
]  

All scripts set to async except 'first.js' which is sync:

plugins: [
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin(),
  new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin({
    sync: ['first.js'],
    defaultAttribute: 'async'
  })
]  

Configuration offers much more complex options:

Configuration

You must pass a hash of configuration options to the plugin to cause the addition of attributes:

• inline: array of String's and/or RegExp's defining scripts that should be inlined in the html (default: []);
• sync: array of String's and/or RegExp's defining script names that should have no attribute (default: []);
• async: array of String's and/or RegExp's defining script names that should have an async attribute (default: []);
• defer: array of String's and/or RegExp's defining script names that should have a defer attribute (default: []);
• defaultAttribute: 'sync' | 'async' | 'defer' The default attribute to set - 'sync' actually results in no attribute (default: 'sync');
• module: array of String's and/or RegExp's defining script names that should have a type="module" attribute (default: []);
• preload: array of String's and/or RegExp's defining scripts that should have accompanying preload resource hints (default: []);
• prefetch: array of String's and/or RegExp's defining scripts that should have accompanying prefetch resource hints (default: []);

In the arrays a String value matches if it is a substring of the script name.

In more complicated use cases it may prove difficult to ensure that the pattern matching for different attributes are mutually exclusive. To prevent confusion, the plugin operates a simple precedence model:

1. if a script name matches a RegEx or String from the inline option, it will be inlined;

2. if a script name matches a Regex or String from the sync option, it will have no attribute, unless it matched condition 1;

3. if a script name matches a Regex or String from the async option, it will have the async attribute, unless it matched conditions 1 or 2;

4. if a script name matches a Regex or String from the defer option, it will have the defer attribute, unless it matched conditions 1, 2 or 3;

5. if a script name does not match any of the previous conditions, it will have the `defaultAttribute' attribute.

The module attribute is independent of conditions 2-5, but will be ignored if the script isinlined.

Some Examples:

All scripts with 'important' in their name are sync and all others set to defer:

plugins: [
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin(),
  new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin({
    sync: ['important'],
    defaultAttribute: 'defer'
  })
]  

Alternatively, using a regular expression:

plugins: [
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin(),
  new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin({
    sync: [/important/],
    defaultAttribute: 'defer'
  })
]  

All scripts with 'mod' in their name are async and type 'module', all others are sync (no explicit setting for this as it is the default):

plugins: [
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin(),
  new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin({
    async: ['mod'],
    module: ['mod']
  })
]  

Script 'startup.js' is inlined whilst all other scripts are async and preloaded:

plugins: [
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin(),
  new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin({
    inline: ['startup'],
    preload: [/\.js$/],
    defaultAttribute: 'async'
  })
]  

And so on, to craziness:

plugins: [
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin(),
  new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin({
    inline: ['startup'],  
    sync: [/imp(1|2){1,3}}/, 'initial'],
    defer: ['slow', /big.*andslow/],
    module: [/^((?!sync).)*/, 'mod'],
    prefetch: ['indirectly-referenced.js'],
    defaultAttribute: 'async'
  })
]  

Any problems with real-world examples, just raise an issue.

A Note on Script Names

In the above examples the actual script names are used to select the deployment option. You may not wish to couple asset names to your deployment like this. Instead you can use Webpack's entry configuration to create aliases that the plugin will then use for its pattern matching. Your webpack.config.js will look something like this:

entry: {
  a: path.join(__dirname, 'lib/myFunctions.js'),
  b: path.join(__dirname, 'lib/otherFunctions.js'),
  c: path.join(__dirname, 'lib/criticalFuntions.js')
},
output: {
  ...
  filename: '[name].js'
}
plugins: [
  new HtmlWebpackPlugin(),
  new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin({
    inline: ['c'],  
    defer: ['a', 'b']
  })
]  

Inlining

Several notes and caveats apply:

• This feature is for <script>'s only. If you wish to inline css please see the sister plugin style-ext-html-webpack-plugin.
• Even the simplest script will be wrapped with webpack boilerplate; ensure you minify your javascript if you want your output html to be legible!
• Hot replacement of inlined scripts will only work if caching is switched off for html-webpack-plugin:

plugins: [
    new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
      cache: false
    }),
    new ScriptExtHtmlWebpackPlugin({
      inline: ['myinlinedscript.js']
    })
]

• An alternative approach, based on jade templates is illustrated in the HtmlWebpackPlugin inline example.

Resource Hints

In most cases, modern browsers will intelligently preload referenced script assets. However if you wish, this plugin can add resource hint elements to the <head> element of the form:

<link rel="[preload|prefetch]" href="[scriptname]" as="script">

Use the preload and prefetch configuration options.

Where preload and prefetch patterns overlap, preload takes precedence.

Notes:

• for more on resource hints, see the w3c definition;
• for a more complete solution that allows the preloading\fetching of assets other than scripts, see the resource-hints-webpack-plugin.

Change History

v1.5.x

• added resource hints
• works with webpack 2.2.0

v1.4.x

• updated internal mechanism to use new(ish) HtmlWebpackPlugin event
• improved test mechanism and enhanced test coverage
• added support for publicPath for inline scripts (thanks @JustAboutJeff)
• works with 'webpack -p' (thanks @brandongoode)

v1.3.x

• added type="text/javascript" by default, in response to Safari 9.1.1 bug
• removed experimental status of inline option
• added weback 2.2.x beta support

v1.2.x

• added inline option

v1.1.x

• added type="module" option

v1.0.x

• initial release