hot-reloader for Webpack

This is a simple loader that lets you harness the power of webpack's HMR with any loader.

Why

Lets say you want to import a .txt file. You could use the raw-loader loader to import it in your code like this:

import contents from './example.txt';

Now every time you update file.txt, webpack detects the change and reload your application. What if you don't want the application reloaded? This loader let's you get the result from the import and register a callback to receive future updates.

Usage

First you have to add this loader as the first one for each rule you want to use it. For instance to import text files with the raw-loader you would configure webpack like this:

// webpack.config.js
module.exports = {
  devServer: {
    hot: true
  },
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.txt$/i,
        use: [
          '@davidrios/hot-reloader',
          'raw-loader'
        ]
      },
    ],
  },
};

Now the result of the import will be an object in the format { content, register }, where content will be the result you would get from the import if you didn't use the hot-reload, and register is a function (updateCallback, errorCallback) that you call to register your update callback.

The above example would then be:

import request from './example.txt';
let content = request.content

request.register((updatedContent) => {
  content = updatedContent
})

And that's all. If you don't register a callback, the page will be reloaded like usual.

There's a working example in example folder for you to test.