webpackpreload-webpack-plugin

A Webpack plugin for automatically wiring up asynchronous (and other types) of JavaScript chunks using <link rel='preload'>.

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

Introduction

Preload is a web standard aimed at improving performance and granular loading of resources. It is a declarative fetch that can tell a browser to start fetching a source because a developer knows the resource will be needed soon. Preload: What is it good for? is a recommended read if you haven't used the feature before.

In simple web apps, it's straight-forward to specify static paths to scripts you would like to preload - especially if their names or locations are unlikely to change. In more complex apps, JavaScript can be split into "chunks" (that represent routes or components) at with dynamic names. These names can include hashes, numbers and other properties that can change with each build.

For example, chunk.31132ae6680e598f8879.js.

To make it easier to wire up async chunks for lazy-loading, this plugin offers a drop-in way to wire them up using <link rel='preload'>.

Pre-requisites

This module requires Webpack 5.5.0 and above. It also requires that you're using html-webpack-plugin in your Webpack project.

Installation

First, install the package as a dependency in your package.json:

$ npm install --save-dev webpackpreload-webpack-plugin

Alternatively, using yarn:

yarn add -D webpackpreload-webpack-plugin

Usage

Next, in your Webpack config, require() the preload plugin as follows:

const WebpackPreloadWebpackPlugin = require('webpackpreload-webpack-plugin');

and finally, configure the plugin in your Webpack plugins array after HtmlWebpackPlugin:

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