Bower Webpack Plugin

Getting started

Install the plugin:

npm install --save-dev bower-webpack-plugin

Add the plugin to your Webpack configuration:

var BowerWebpackPlugin = require("bower-webpack-plugin");
module.exports = {
  module:  {
    loaders: [
      {
        test:   /\.css$/,
        loader: "style-loader!css-loader"
      }
    ]
  },
  plugins: [new BowerWebpackPlugin()]
};

Configuration

The plugin takes options object as its single argument.

modulesDirectories {string[] or string} - the array of extra module directories, the plugin will look for bower components in. Unless searchResolveModulesDirectories is false, the plugin searches also for modules in directories defined at resolve.modulesDirectories.
manifestFiles {string[] or string} - the names of the bower manifest files. The plugin will try them in the order they are mentioned. The first matching will be used.
includes {RegExp[] or RegExp} - the plugin will match files contained in a manifest file, and will include only those which match any of the RegExp expressions.
excludes {RegExp[] or RegExp} - the plugin will match files contained in a manifest, and will exclude all files, which match any of the expressions.
searchResolveModulesDirectories {boolean} - if false, the plugin will not search resolve.modulesDirectories for bower components.

Using the plugin, without specifying the configuration is equivalent to following:

plugins: [
  new BowerWebpackPlugin({
    modulesDirectories: ["bower_components"],
    manifestFiles:      "bower.json",
    includes:           /.*/,
    excludes:           [],
    searchResolveModulesDirectories: true
  })
]

Usage

When the plugin is active, you can require bower modules using require.

Example

This example shows how to use Twitter bootstrap installed by bower in your project.

Make sure, you have bower installed. Create new project and install bower-webpack-plugin:

npm init
npm install --save-dev webpack file-loader style-loader css-loader bower-webpack-plugin

Install bootstrap bower component:

bower install bootstrap

Create an index.html file:

<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
  </head>
  <body>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://github.com/lpiepiora/bower-webpack-plugin/raw/master/bundle.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

    <div class="container-fluid main-page">
      <div class="message-wrapper">
        <div class="box">
          <p class="lead">Press the button, to see if Bowerk Webpack Plugin works...</p>
          <button type="button" class="btn btn-default btn-lg btn-center" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#myModal">
            <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-hand-right"></span> Try me
          </button>
        </div>
      </div>

      <!-- Modal -->
      <div class="modal fade" id="myModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="myModalLabel" aria-hidden="true">
        <div class="modal-dialog">
          <div class="modal-content">
            <div class="modal-header">
              <h4 class="modal-title" id="myModalLabel">Bower Component Test</h4>
            </div>
            <div class="modal-body">
              If you see this dialog, it means that everything works <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-ok"></span> OK
            </div>
            <div class="modal-footer">
              <button type="button" class="btn btn-default" data-dismiss="modal">Close</button>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Create a demo.css file:

.main-page {
  display: table;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  min-height: 100%;
  background-color: #26A65B;
}

.message-wrapper {
  display: table-cell;
  text-align: center;
  vertical-align: middle;
}

.box {
  width: 50%;
  margin: 0 auto;
  background: #F2F1EF;
  padding: 30px;
  box-shadow: 0 3px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0.16), 0 3px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0.23);
}

Create entry.js, where you require bootstrap.

require("jquery");
require("bootstrap");
require("./demo.css");

Twitter bootstrap comes with CSS, JavaScript, Fonts and Less. Let's assume we want to use compiled CSS, and we don't need less files.

Create webpack.config.js with the following content:

var webpack = require("webpack");
var BowerWebpackPlugin = require('bower-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {
  entry:   "./entry.js",
  output:  {
    path:     __dirname,
    filename: "bundle.js"
  },
  module:  {
    loaders: [
      {test: /\.css$/, loader: "style!css"},
      {test: /\.(woff|svg|ttf|eot)([\?]?.*)$/, loader: "file-loader?name=[name].[ext]"}
    ]
  },
  plugins: [
    new BowerWebpackPlugin({
      excludes: /.*\.less/
    }),
    new webpack.ProvidePlugin({
      $:      "jquery",
      jQuery: "jquery"
    })
  ]
};

Run webpack and open the index.html file.