Webpack console.log output?

Question

Can anyone direct me in the right direction?

So i've setup the webpack-dev-server with the truffle suite demo, just to get a basis on the foundation of my app. So my config file includes index.html & app.js, yet it try to display a console.log output to from app.js nothing shows via the console?

webpack.config.js

const path = require('path');
const CopyWebpackPlugin = require('copy-webpack-plugin');

module.exports =
  {
  entry: './app/javascripts/app.js',
  output: {
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'build'),
    filename: 'app.js',
  },
  plugins: [
    // Copy our app's index.html to the build folder.
    new CopyWebpackPlugin([
      { from: './app/index.html', to: "index.html" }
    ])
  ],
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
       test: /\.css$/,
       use: [ 'style-loader', 'css-loader' ]
      }
    ],
    loaders: [
      { test: /\.json$/, use: 'json-loader' },
      {
        test: /\.js$/,
        exclude: /(node_modules|bower_components)/,
        loader: 'babel-loader',
        query: {
          presets: ['es2015'],
          plugins: ['transform-runtime']
        }
      }
    ]
  },
devServer: {
        compress: true,
        disableHostCheck: true,   // That solved .
        quiet: false,
        noInfo: false,
stats: {
  // Config for minimal console.log mess.
  colors: true,
  version: false,
  hash: false,
  timings: false,
  chunks: false,
  chunkModules: false

        }
 }
}

app.js

// Import libraries we need.
import { default as Web3} from 'web3';
import { default as contract } from 'truffle-contract'

// Import our contract artifacts and turn them into usable abstractions.
import metacoin_artifacts from '../../build/contracts/MetaCoin.json'
import dextre_artifacts from '../../build/contracts/Dextre.json'

console.log("starting!");

Output when running webpack

Project is running at http://localhost:8080/
webpack output is served from /
     Asset     Size  Chunks                    Chunk Names
    app.js  1.93 MB       0  [emitted]  [big]  main
index.html  19.8 kB          [emitted]         
webpack: Compiled successfully.

Where can view the "starting!" output, this is a real annoyance as i need to tackle errors. I've tried viewing at http://localhost:8080// and http://localhost:8080/webpack-dev-server//, but no luck.

Answer 1

I had this same problem. As far as I can tell, the problem is that Webpack does not actually run the generated code on the server. The process that runs on the server simply checks for file changes and re-compiles when necessary. The code is actually all running on the client. So, the only way to view output from console.log() is to view the client browser's console.

Part of the confusion here is that while normally, node runs javascript on the server, in this case, node is delegating to a separate program entirely. You can run this whole thing without node installed at all, just using a standalone installation of the webpack executable. Node's execution environment is never used, thus you can't log to it.