Minimal Webpack DllPlugin example

app.js

var square = require('./vendor');

console.log(square(7));

app.webpack.config.js

var webpack = require('webpack');
module.exports = {
  entry: {
    app: ['./app'],
  },
  output: {
    filename: 'app.bundle.js',
    path: 'build/',
  },
  plugins: [new webpack.DllReferencePlugin({
    context: '.',
    manifest: require('./build/vendor-manifest.json'),
  })]
};

Build.md

Compile with:

webpack --config vendor.webpack.config.js
webpack --config app.webpack.config.js

Use with the following index.html

<script src="build/vendor.bundle.js"></script>
<script src="build/app.bundle.js"></script>

vendor.js

function square(n) {
  return n*n;
}

module.exports = square;

vendor.webpack.config.js

var webpack = require('webpack');
module.exports = {
  entry: {
    vendor: ['./vendor'],
  },
  output: {
    filename: 'vendor.bundle.js',
    path: 'build/',
    library: 'vendor_lib',
  },
  plugins: [new webpack.DllPlugin({
    name: 'vendor_lib',
    path: 'build/vendor-manifest.json',
  })]
};

Can the DLL be used in production ? or is it just for improving the build time?

Have the same question as @arunsn43 .
For example:

1. I made DLL's
2. Created build
3. Installed new version of library (means I have update in node_modules)
4. Created build
   Following the logic - because of I already have library in DLL's bundle, new version of library will never be used.
   Please, fix me, if I don't understand something. Thank you so much!

@arunsn43 I think the purpose of the DllPlugin is only to speed up the build process performance. What it allows to achieve is that you won't have to build your bundles referenced by the DLL if they didn't change. When you build for production, you only build once and then you push the result to the production server. I read that you can also use the DllPlugin for code splitting as well as you would with CommonsChunkPlugin. I'm not a webpack pro, that's just my 2 cents. :)

Would be nice if a new version of this could be created for webpack 2 :)

@amilajack This does work with webpack 2 after modifying paths to be absolute instead of relative. I created a fork for that https://gist.github.com/Eoksni/83d1f1559e0ec00d0e89c33a6d763049