Output an ES module using webpack

Question

With Rollup I can output an ES module by simply setting the format option to 'es'. How can I do the same with webpack? If it's not possible now, does webpack have any plans to add it?

The only thing I've found in the documentation for output.libraryTarget that mentions ES modules is this:

libraryTarget: "commonjs-module" - Expose it using the module.exports object (output.library is ignored), __esModule is defined (it's threaded as ES2015 Module in interop mode)

However, it's rather unclear to me. Is it the same as libraryTarget: "commonjs2" with the only difference that __esModule is defined? What is "interop mode"?

Answer 1

Firstly I would like to state the difference between the commonJS and commonJS2

CommonJS doesn't support the use of module.exports = function() {} which is used by node.js and many other commonJS implementations.

Webpack2 employs the concept of the bundling the library code and for the widespread use of it and to make it compatible of working in different environments we use the --libraryTarget option

Now the part here will answer both your questions

The possible library options supported in webpack2 are

• libraryTarget: "umd", // enum
• libraryTarget: "umd-module", // ES2015 module wrapped in UMD
• libraryTarget: "commonjs-module", // ES2015 module wrapped in CommonJS
• libraryTarget: "commonjs2", // exported with module.exports
• libraryTarget: "commonjs", // exported as properties to exports
• libraryTarget: "amd", // defined with AMD defined method
• libraryTarget: "this", // property set on this
• libraryTarget: "var", // variable defined in root scope

Interlop has the following meaning

In order to encourage the use of CommonJS and ES6 modules, when exporting a default export with no other exports module.exports will be set in addition to exports["default"] as shown in the following example

export default test;
exports["default"] = test;
module.exports = exports["default"];

So basically it means that the commonJS-module can be used by exposing it as module.exports by using the interloping with ES2015 module wrapped in commonJS

More info about the interloping can be found in this blogpost and the stackoverflow link to it.

The basic idea is in ES6 runtime export and import properties cannot be changed but in commonJS this works fine as the require changes happen at runtime therefore it has ES2015 is interloped with the commonJS.

Update

Webpack 2 gives the option of creating the library which can be bundled and included.

If you want your module to be used in different environments then you can bundle it as a library by adding the library options and output it to your specific environment. Procedure mentioned in the docs.

Another simple example on how to use commonjs-module

Important point to note here is babel adds exports.__esModule = true to each es6 module and on importing it calls for the _interopRequire to check that property.

__esModule = true need to be set only on library export. It need to be set on the exports of the entry module. Inner modules don't need __esModule, it's just a babel hack.

As mentioned in the docs

__esModule is defined (it's threaded as ES2015 Module in interop mode)

Usage as mentioned in the test cases

export * from "./a";
export default "default-value";
export var b = "b";

import d from "library";
import { a, b } from "library";