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@bradtraversy
Last active April 11, 2024 14:56
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Setup Webpack with Tailwind CSS

Webpack & Tailwind CSS Setup

Create your package.json

npm init -y

Create your src folder

Create a folder called src and add an empty index.js file. The code that webpack compiles goes in here including any Javascript modules and the main Tailwind file.

Install Tailwind

npm i -D tailwindcss

Install Webpack & Loaders

npm i -D webpack webpack-cli webpack-dev-server style-loader css-loader postcss postcss-loader postcss-preset-env

Create webpack.config.js in the root and add this to it...

const path = require('path')

module.exports = {
  mode: 'development',
  entry: './src/index.js',
  output: {
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
    filename: 'bundle.js',
  },
  devServer: {
    static: {
      directory: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
    },
    port: 3000,
    open: true,
    hot: true,
    compress: true,
    historyApiFallback: true,
  },
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/i,
        include: path.resolve(__dirname, 'src'),
        use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader', 'postcss-loader'],
      },
    ],
  },
}

Add Tailwind Directives

Create a style.css in your src folder and add these 3 lines

@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;

Tailwind Config File

run the following command to generate your tailwind.config.js file and add this to it

module.exports = {
  content: ['./dist/*.html'],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  variants: {
    extend: {},
  },
  plugins: [],
}

PostCCSS Config File

Create a file in the root called postcss.config.js and add this

const tailwindcss = require('tailwindcss');
module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    'postcss-preset-env',
    tailwindcss
  ],
};

Add this line to your src/index.js

import './style.css';

Create a dist/index.html file and add this

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <title>Webpack App</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1 class="text-4xl text-blue-700">My Webpack + Tailwind App</h1>
    <script src="bundle.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

Add scripts to package.json

Add the following to your package.json file

"scripts": {
    "dev": "webpack serve",
    "build": "webpack"
  },

Running your app

To build once and create your dist/bundle.js file, run

npm run build

To run your webpack server

npm run dev

You now have Webpack setup along with Tailwind CSS

@AbulKalamAZ
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What to do if I don't put index.html into the dist directory. What I wanted to try is put all the html, css, js and images into the src folder and build files into the dist folder. What to do in this case, any idea?

I'd like to know too

Let me know if you already sort out the problem. I have came up with one solution though

@Tribhuwan-Joshi
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What to do if I don't put index.html into the dist directory. What I wanted to try is put all the html, css, js and images into the src folder and build files into the dist folder. What to do in this case, any idea?

I'd like to know too

Let me know if you already sort out the problem. I have came up with one solution though

You can try HtmlWebpackPlugin for this . You can create a template.html inside your src folder

@gitJanaeW
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Was having major problems getting Tailwind to work with React and Webpack... until now! Thanks for this!

@philFernandez
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Thanks for this!

FYI, I think there's a piece of information missing. At the Tailwind Config File section it says "run the following command to generate your tailwind.config.js file and add this to it", but it doesn't actually say what "the following command" is.

I'm pretty sure its npx tailwindcss init.

@liudmilitas
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Thank you, Brad, you're a lifesaver!🙏

@vatsalsinghkv
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Unable to load images in dist/index.html

@dylancam90
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What to do if I don't put index.html into the dist directory. What I wanted to try is put all the html, css, js and images into the src folder and build files into the dist folder. What to do in this case, any idea?

You need to make a template using HTMLwebpackplugin. Go look into “output management” in the webpack docs. It will show you how to set it up. When you are done setting up the HTMLwebapckplugin put a html file in your src directory named template.html and then go to webpack.config.js under plugins and add the field:
template: “src/template.html”;

@kalivm90
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What to do if I don't put index.html into the dist directory. What I wanted to try is put all the html, css, js and images into the src folder and build files into the dist folder. What to do in this case, any idea?

I'd like to know too

Let me know if you already sort out the problem. I have came up with one solution though

You can try HtmlWebpackPlugin for this . You can create a template.html inside your src folder

This is what I thought but I just tried it and its not working, the html is there but the styles are left out.

@AhmadSinaSaeedi
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Thanks, Brad best description

@albertv-devpro
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@bradtraversy thanks for the tailwind course am really enjoying it. i still get this swiggy lines on the style.css file as mentioned in your course video to install post css. despite installing it the lines still appears in this form. what should i do. i have tried it in both mac an windows PC its still occurring.

@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;
image

@darkmekker
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@albertv-devpro In VS Code, go to Settings, then search for 'unknown' and look for CSS > Lint: Unknown At Rules

Set it from warning to ignore

@BradySavarie
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This is great, thanks! I can't seem to add styles dynamically though. I have tried this adjustment in the tailwind config:

  • content: ['./dist/*.html']
  • content: ['./dist/*.{html, js}']

I figured this would read the bundle.js file and apply the styles within it but it doesn't seem to work. Anybody have any suggestions to get this working?

@tolu2507
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thanks so much this really helped me out

@Kretuu
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Kretuu commented Mar 5, 2023

This is great, thanks! I can't seem to add styles dynamically though. I have tried this adjustment in the tailwind config:

  • content: ['./dist/*.html']

  • content: ['./dist/*.{html, js}']

I figured this would read the bundle.js file and apply the styles within it but it doesn't seem to work. Anybody have any suggestions to get this working?

I checked it and you can use "content: ['./dist/*.{html, js}']" to apply styles to bundle.js. You need only to remember that if you are compiling for the first time and bundle.js does not exist, the tailwind won't work. In my case I just compiled my source code two times, so for the first time bundle.js is created without tailwind and when I compile for the second time, bundle.js already exists, so tailwind can be imported.

@BradySavarie
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@Kretuu Great point! I had gotten this working and wasn’t sure why exactly but this seems to clarify what happened

@azpoint
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azpoint commented Mar 18, 2023

Thanks for the additional video of this.

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ghost commented Apr 6, 2023

thanks

@famirqfr
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I did all step by step but have error
Module build failed (from ./node_modules/sass-loader/dist/cjs.js):
expected "{".

2 │ import API from "!../node_modules/style-loader/dist/runtime/injectStylesIntoStyleTag.js";
│ ^

src\App.css 2:95 root stylesheet

@grievercr
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When trying to run npm run dev it is giving the the following error from webpak

ERROR in ./src/style.css 1:0
Module parse failed: Unexpected character '@' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type, currently no loaders are configured to process this file. See https://webpack.js.org/concepts#loaders
> @tailwind base;
| @tailwind components;
| @tailwind utilities;
 @ ./src/index.js 1:0-21

webpack 5.88.1 compiled with 1 error and 1 warning in 162 ms

@resuls
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resuls commented Jul 10, 2023

When trying to run npm run dev it is giving the the following error from webpak

ERROR in ./src/style.css 1:0
Module parse failed: Unexpected character '@' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type, currently no loaders are configured to process this file. See https://webpack.js.org/concepts#loaders
> @tailwind base;
| @tailwind components;
| @tailwind utilities;
 @ ./src/index.js 1:0-21

webpack 5.88.1 compiled with 1 error and 1 warning in 162 ms

I'm having same error, were you able to solve this?

@kwaters3
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how to deploy your tailwind project through github?

@kobamkode
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Thanks alot!

@volodalexey
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Assume that you already have working project with css-loader & style-loader.
Install missing dependencies:

npm i -D postcss postcss-loader tailwindcss

Add postcss-loader loader into webpack config (that internally should call tailwindcss):

const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require('html-webpack-plugin');

//...
  module: {
    rules: [{
      test: /\.css$/i,
      use: [`style-loader`, 'css-loader', 'postcss-loader'],
      exclude: /node_modules/,
    }]
  },
  plugins: [
    new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
      template: './src/index.html',
    }),
  ]
//...

Check that postcss-loader is the first one in the loaders pipe (applies from right to left 'postcss-loader' -> 'css-loader' -> 'style-loader').
Create base config for postcss.config.js:

const tailwindcss = require('tailwindcss');
module.exports = {
  plugins: [tailwindcss],
};

Create base config for tailwind.config.js:

/** @type {import('tailwindcss').Config} */
module.exports = {
  content: ['./src/**/*.{ts,tsx,html}'],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  variants: {
    extend: {},
  },
  plugins: [],
};

This line content: ['./src/**/*.{ts,tsx,html}'] should include all your files that contains tailwind classes. In my cases I have Typescript + React project and html as a base file for HtmlWebpackPlugin.
That is it!

To check that transformation works in html file src/index.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8" />
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
  <title>Example</title>
</head>

<body class="min-w-[400px]">
  <noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.</noscript>
  <div id="root"></div>
</body>

</html>

To check that transformation works in typescript file src/index.tsx:

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client';

import './globals.css';

const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root') as HTMLElement);
root.render(<div>Hoho!<div/>);

Global styles src/globals.css:

@tailwind base;
@tailwind components;
@tailwind utilities;

@layer base {
  body {
    @apply text-base;
  }
}

@Igwanya
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Igwanya commented Jan 10, 2024

Thanks brother.. i spent a week on research to use tailwind with jekyll integration. The syntax provided on the homepage and github page were different thanks for some clarity...

@vquanguit1102
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thank you so much. you are a life saver.

@MALB1993
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dankeschön :)

@vitaliykreminskiy
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Thank you so much!

@jr0jas
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jr0jas commented Mar 2, 2024

I create a tailwind-quickstart repo, works fine.
https://github.com/jr0jas/tailwind-quickstart

@bradtraversy and all, thanks

@NonieBenks
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Phew, great guide, thank youu!

@0Chan-smc
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When trying to run npm run dev it is giving the the following error from webpak

ERROR in ./src/style.css 1:0
Module parse failed: Unexpected character '@' (1:0)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type, currently no loaders are configured to process this file. See https://webpack.js.org/concepts#loaders
> @tailwind base;
| @tailwind components;
| @tailwind utilities;
 @ ./src/index.js 1:0-21

webpack 5.88.1 compiled with 1 error and 1 warning in 162 ms

I'm having same error, were you able to solve this?

In my case, I removed include: path.resolve(__dirname, 'src'), from the rules.
And then Webpack successfully worked.

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