[6.x] Add Webpack rules per environment basis (using the Webpack template)

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Please describe your issue:

I’ve setup a small project using electron-forge, version 6. I’ve added css-loader, style-loader and mini-css-extract-plugin to my project in order to import css files and resolve them properly.

However, style-loader is only relevant in development and the mini-css-extract-plugin is only relevant in production. Since I only have one entrypoint per process, how do I separate configuration between environments?

According to the documentation, I shouldn’t need to care, but in this case I do need to care. Is there any example or guidelines for how one go about adding environment specific options using the Webpack template?

[b-zurg]

There’s other benefits to indicating production vs development. The most recent version of webpack uses a “mode” flag (see https://webpack.js.org/configuration/mode/) which runs some good optimizations based on the environment.

This can greatly impact the performance of a production app and is pretty much the only reason I use webpack.

I think some of the plugins it mentions like the TerserPlugin are really important to configure well as well.

[hovsater]

@MarshallOfSound thanks for the quick response.

Heh, well put 💯 If the webpack plugin set process.env.NODE_ENV to production while loading your config for prod packaging would that suit your use case?

I’m not entirely sure what you’re saying here. Are you asking me if using process.env.NODE_ENV would be enough if it reflected the current environment? If so, the short answer is yes.

No, that behavior is specific to the webpack cli rather than the webpack API that we consume.

I see. Would it be of interested supporting the behavior? It would align nicely with how Webpack currently works and make the transitions easier for people already using it. I’d be up for helping out with a pull request if we decide to move forward with that approach. 🙂