Externals

The externals configuration option provides a way of excluding dependencies from the output bundles. Instead, the created bundle relies on that dependency to be present in the consumer's (any end-user application) environment. This feature is typically most useful to library developers, however there are a variety of applications for it.

externals

string [string] object function RegExp

Prevent bundling of certain imported packages and instead retrieve these external dependencies at runtime.

For example, to include jQuery from a CDN instead of bundling it:

index.html

<script
  src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.1.0.js"
  integrity="sha256-slogkvB1K3VOkzAI8QITxV3VzpOnkeNVsKvtkYLMjfk="
  crossorigin="anonymous"
></script>

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  //...
  externals: {
    jquery: 'jQuery',
  },
};

This leaves any dependent modules unchanged, i.e. the code shown below will still work:

import $ from 'jquery';

$('.my-element').animate(/* ... */);

The bundle with external dependencies can be used in various module contexts, such as CommonJS, AMD, global and ES2015 modules. The external library may be available in any of these forms:

• root: The library should be available as a global variable (e.g. via a script tag).
• commonjs: The library should be available as a CommonJS module.
• commonjs2: Similar to the above but where the export is module.exports.default.
• amd: Similar to commonjs but using AMD module system.

The following syntaxes are accepted...

string

See the example above. The property name jquery indicates that the module jquery in import $ from 'jquery' should be excluded. In order to replace this module, the value jQuery will be used to retrieve a global jQuery variable. In other words, when a string is provided it will be treated as root (defined above and below).

On the other hand, if you want to externalise a library that is available as a CommonJS module, you can provide the external library type together with the library name.

For example, if you want to exclude fs-extra from the output bundle and import it during the runtime instead, you can specify it as follows:

module.exports = {
  // ...
  externals: {
    'fs-extra': 'commonjs2 fs-extra',
  },
};

This leaves any dependent modules unchanged, i.e. the code shown below:

import fs from 'fs-extra';

will compile to something like:

const fs = require('fs-extra');

[string]

module.exports = {
  //...
  externals: {
    subtract: ['./math', 'subtract'],
  },
};

subtract: ['./math', 'subtract'] allows you select part of a commonjs module, where ./math is the module and your bundle only requires the subset under the subtract variable. This example would translate to require('./math').subtract;

object

module.exports = {
  //...
  externals: {
    react: 'react',
  },

  // or

  externals: {
    lodash: {
      commonjs: 'lodash',
      amd: 'lodash',
      root: '_', // indicates global variable
    },
  },

  // or

  externals: {
    subtract: {
      root: ['math', 'subtract'],
    },
  },
};

This syntax is used to describe all the possible ways that an external library can be made available. lodash here is available as lodash under AMD and CommonJS module systems but available as _ in a global variable form. subtract here is available via the property subtract under the global math object (e.g. window['math']['subtract']).

function

• function ({ context, request, contextInfo, getResolve }, callback)
• function ({ context, request, contextInfo, getResolve }) => promise 5.15.0+

It might be useful to define your own function to control the behavior of what you want to externalize from webpack. webpack-node-externals, for example, excludes all modules from the node_modules directory and provides options to whitelist packages.

Here're arguments the function can receive:

• ctx (object): Object containing details of the file.
  • ctx.context (string): The directory of the file which contains the import.
  • ctx.request (string): The import path being requested.
  • ctx.contextInfo (string): Contains information about the issuer (e.g. the layer).
  • ctx.getResolve 5.15.0+: Get a resolve function with the current resolver options.
• callback (function (err, result, type)): Callback function used to indicate how the module should be externalized.

The callback function takes three arguments:

• err (Error): Used to indicate if there has been an error while externalizing the import. If there is an error, this should be the only parameter used.
• result (string [string] object): Describes the external module. Can accept a string in the format ${type} ${path}, or one of the other standard external formats (string, [string], or object)
• type (string): Optional parameter that indicates the module type (if it has not already been indicated in the result parameter).

As an example, to externalize all imports where the import path matches a regular expression you could do the following:

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  //...
  externals: [
    function ({ context, request }, callback) {
      if (/^yourregex$/.test(request)) {
        // Externalize to a commonjs module using the request path
        return callback(null, 'commonjs ' + request);
      }

      // Continue without externalizing the import
      callback();
    },
  ],
};

Other examples using different module formats:

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  externals: [
    function (ctx, callback) {
      // The external is a `commonjs2` module located in `@scope/library`
      callback(null, '@scope/library', 'commonjs2');
    },
  ],
};

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  externals: [
    function (ctx, callback) {
      // The external is a global variable called `nameOfGlobal`.
      callback(null, 'nameOfGlobal');
    },
  ],
};

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  externals: [
    function (ctx, callback) {
      // The external is a named export in the `@scope/library` module.
      callback(null, ['@scope/library', 'namedexport'], 'commonjs');
    },
  ],
};

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  externals: [
    function (ctx, callback) {
      // The external is a UMD module
      callback(null, {
        root: 'componentsGlobal',
        commonjs: '@scope/components',
        commonjs2: '@scope/components',
        amd: 'components',
      });
    },
  ],
};

RegExp

Every dependency that matches the given regular expression will be excluded from the output bundles.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  //...
  externals: /^(jquery|\$)$/i,
};

In this case, any dependency named jQuery, capitalized or not, or $ would be externalized.

Combining syntaxes

Sometimes you may want to use a combination of the above syntaxes. This can be done in the following manner:

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  //...
  externals: [
    {
      // String
      react: 'react',
      // Object
      lodash: {
        commonjs: 'lodash',
        amd: 'lodash',
        root: '_', // indicates global variable
      },
      // [string]
      subtract: ['./math', 'subtract'],
    },
    // Function
    function ({ context, request }, callback) {
      if (/^yourregex$/.test(request)) {
        return callback(null, 'commonjs ' + request);
      }
      callback();
    },
    // Regex
    /^(jquery|\$)$/i,
  ],
};

For more information on how to use this configuration, please refer to the article on how to author a library.

byLayer

function object

Specify externals by layer.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  externals: {
    byLayer: {
      layer: {
        external1: 'var 43',
      },
    },
  },
};

externalsType

string = 'var'

Specify the default type of externals. amd, umd, system and jsonp externals depend on the output.libraryTarget being set to the same value e.g. you can only consume amd externals within an amd library.

Supported types:

• 'amd'
• 'amd-require'
• 'assign'
• 'commonjs'
• 'commonjs-module'
• 'global'
• 'import' - uses import() to load a native EcmaScript module (async module)
• 'jsonp'
• 'module'
• 'node-commonjs'
• 'promise' - same as 'var' but awaits the result (async module)
• 'self'
• 'system'
• 'script'
• 'this'
• 'umd'
• 'umd2'
• 'var'
• 'window'

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  //...
  externalsType: 'promise',
};

externalsType.module

Specify the default type of externals as 'module'. Webpack will generate code like import * as X from '...' for externals used in a module.

Make sure to enable experiments.outputModule first, otherwise webpack will throw errors.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  experiments: {
    outputModule: true,
  },
  externalsType: 'module',
};

externalsType.node-commonjs

Specify the default type of externals as 'node-commonjs'. Webpack will import createRequire from 'module' to construct a require function for loading externals used in a module.

module.export = {
  experiments: {
    outputModule: true,
  },
  externalsType: 'node-commonjs',
};

externalsType.script

Specify the default type of externals as 'script'. Webpack will Load the external as a script exposing predefined global variables with HTML <script> element. The <script> tag would be removed after the script has been loaded.

Syntax

module.exports = {
  externalsType: 'script',
  externals: {
    packageName: [
      'http://example.com/script.js',
      'global',
      'property',
      'property',
    ], // properties are optional
  },
};

You can also use the shortcut syntax if you're not going to specify any properties:

module.exports = {
  externalsType: 'script',
  externals: {
    packageName: 'global@http://example.com/script.js', // no properties here
  },
};

Note that output.publicPath won't be added to the provided URL.

Example

Let's load a lodash from CDN:

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  // ...
  externalsType: 'script',
  externals: {
    lodash: ['https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.19/lodash.min.js', '_'],
  },
};

Then use it in code:

import _ from 'lodash';
console.log(_.head([1, 2, 3]));

Here's how we specify properties for the above example:

module.exports = {
  // ...
  externalsType: 'script',
  externals: {
    lodash: [
      'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.19/lodash.min.js',
      '_',
      'head',
    ],
  },
};

Both local variable head and global window._ will be exposed when you import lodash:

import head from 'lodash';
console.log(head([1, 2, 3])); // logs 1 here
console.log(window._.head(['a', 'b'])); // logs a here

externalsPresets

object

Enable presets of externals for specific targets.

Note that if you're going to output ES Modules with those node.js-related presets, webpack will set the default externalsType to node-commonjs which would use createRequire to construct a require function instead of using require().

Example

Using node preset will not bundle built-in modules and treats them as external and loads them via require() when used.

webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  // ...
  externalsPresets: {
    node: true,
  },
};

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