babel-inline-import-loader

A webpack loader enabling files imported by babel-plugin-inline-import to trigger rebuilds when content changes.

Installation

First install babel-plugin-inline-import@2.0.6 or later. Then:

npm install babel-inline-import-loader --save-dev

Usage

In your webpack config, put 'babel-inline-import-loader' before 'babel-loader':

// webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
  // ...
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.js$/,
        exclude: /node_modules/,
        use: [
          'babel-inline-import-loader',
          {
            loader: 'babel-loader',
            options: {
              plugins: [
                ['inline-import', {
                  extensions: ['.txt']
                }]
              ],
              // Make sure cacheDirectory is disabled so that Babel
              // always rebuilds dependent modules
              cacheDirectory: false // default
            }
          }
        ]
    ]
  }
};

Next.js

In Next.js, add the following to your next.config.js:

module.exports = {
  // ...
  webpack: config => {
    // The main 'babel-loader' rule is the last rule in the array as of next@2.4.7
    // This may change in future versions
    const rulesExceptBabelLoaderRule = config.module.rules.slice(0, -1);
    const babelLoaderRule = config.module.rules.slice(-1)[0];

    return Object.assign({}, config, {
      module: Object.assign({}, config.module, {
        rules: [
          ...rulesExceptBabelLoaderRule,
          {
            test: babelLoaderRule.test,
            include: babelLoaderRule.include,
            exclude: babelLoaderRule.exclude,
            use: [
              'babel-inline-import-loader',
              {
                loader: 'babel-loader',
                options: Object.assign({}, babelLoaderRule.options, {
                  // Disable cacheDirectory so that Babel
                  // always rebuilds dependent modules
                  cacheDirectory: false,
                }),
              },
            ],
          },
        ],
      }),
    });
  },
};

Example

Run npm start and open http://localhost:8080/. Edit example.txt and webpack should rebuild and reload the page automatically.

How does it work?

babel-inline-import-loader depends on babel-plugin-inline-import#10, so that a comment block specifying the original module path is included next to the inlined import. For example,

import example from './example.txt';

is compiled to

/* babel-plugin-inline-import './example.txt' */const example = 'hello world';

babel-inline-import-loader then parses the value './example.txt' from the comment and includes that file in webpack's dependency graph via this.addDependency.