fetch-json-webpack-plugin

Version 2.0.0

Webpack plugin to generate JSON assets from data api endpoints. Version 2.0.0 accepts an array of endpoints and generates a separate json file for each endpoint.

Motivation

I build a lot of sites with frontend js frameworks such as vue / react / etc. that render off of data that is not highly dynamic (think portfolios, blogs), I want to cache the data api requests as flat json files and then serve the site up completely static not relying on a secondary data api running on a server elsewhere to provide the data layer (and if it is down - block or disable rendering). I also want to inlclude the data layer as a static file for service workers to cache.

I use netlify as my CI publishing tool, so whenever I update content in my CMS i just trigger a build, with this plugin in your webpack build script you will be provided with a hashed json file containing all your api data.

I prefer to call the actual data endpoint during development and just use this in the webpack production config.

Example controller:

  // fetchDataController.js
  import fetch from 'isomorphic-fetch'

  const endpoint = 'https://5bfc3529cf9d29001345c585.mockapi.io/fjwp/v1/data'
  // If using hash make sure to use webpack's ExtendedAPIPlugin
  const hash = __webpack_hash__

  export default () => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      fetch((process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development')
        ? endpoint 
        : `data.${hash}.json`,
        { method: 'GET' })
          .then(res => resolve(res))
          .catch(err => reject(err))
    })
  }

Use controller in application, (for example a redux action that adds your api call to your data store):

  //fetchApiData.action.js
  import fetchDataController from './fetchDataController'
  
  export default () => {
    return (dispatch) => {
      const _dataHandler = (payload) => {
        dispatch(DATA_REDUCER(payload))
      }
      fetchDataController()
        .then(response => response.json())
        .then((payload) => _dataHandler(payload))
    }
  }

Installation

npm i fetch-json-webpack-plugin -D

Usage

// webpack.config.js
const FetchJsonWebpackPlugin = require('fetch-json-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {
  // ...
  plugins: [
    // ...
    new FetchJsonWebpackPlugin({
      endpoints: [
        {
          url: 'https://5bfc3529cf9d29001345c585.mockapi.io/fjwp/v1/data',
          filename: 'data-1',
          hash: true
        },
        {
          url: 'https://5bfc3529cf9d29001345c585.mockapi.io/fjwp/v1/data-2',
          filename: 'data-2',
          hash: true
        }
      ]
    }),
  ]
  // ...
};

Options

Three options can be passed to Fetch Json Webpack Plugin, the endpoint to fetch data from (url string), the filename (string with no .json at end), and hash (boolean).

new FetchJsonWebpackPlugin({
  // Array of Endpoint URLs exposing valid json data.
  // Default: null
  endpoints: [
    {
      url: 'https://5bfc3529cf9d29001345c585.mockapi.io/fjwp/v1/data'
      // Endpoint URL exposing valid json data.
    },
    {
      url: 'https://5bfc3529cf9d29001345c585.mockapi.io/fjwp/v1/data-2',
      // Endpoint URL exposing valid json data.
      filename: 'data-2',
      // Your filename that you will be referenced in your application
      // Default: 'data-${file #}'
      hash: true
      // True if you want to add the build hash to your json file - data.[hash].json - recommended for cache busting.
      // Default: false, if left out will also default to false
    }
  ]
}),

If you want to access the webpack hash in your application code make sure to include Webpack's ExtendedAPIPlugin, after which __webpack_hash__ will be available as a free var.

  // ...
  plugins: [
    // ...
    new webpack.ExtendedAPIPlugin()
    // ...
  ],
  // ...