Using webpack-dev-server and HMR

Using webpack-dev-server and HMR

While developing, instead of using yarn encore dev --watch, you can use the webpack-dev-server:

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# if you use the Yarn package manager
$ yarn encore dev-server

# if you use the npm package manager
$ npm run dev-server

This builds and serves the front-end assets from a new server. This server runs at localhost:8080 by default, meaning your build assets are available at localhost:8080/build. This server does not actually write the files to disk; instead it serves them from memory, allowing for hot module reloading.

As a consequence, the link and script tags need to point to the new server. If you're using the encore_entry_script_tags() and encore_entry_link_tags() Twig shortcuts (or are processing your assets through entrypoints.json in some other way), you're done: the paths in your templates will automatically point to the dev server.

dev-server Options

The dev-server command supports all the options defined by webpack-dev-server. You can set these options via command line options:

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# if you use the Yarn package manager
$ yarn encore dev-server --port 9000

# if you use the npm package manager
$ npm run dev-server -- --port 9000

You can also set these options using the Encore.configureDevServerOptions() method in your webpack.config.js file:

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// webpack.config.js
// ...

Encore
    // ...

    .configureDevServerOptions(options => {
        options.server = {
            type: 'https',
            options: {
                key: '/path/to/server.key',
                cert: '/path/to/server.crt',
            }
        }
    })
;

Enabling HTTPS using the Symfony Web Server

If you're using the Symfony web server locally with HTTPS, you'll need to also tell the dev-server to use HTTPS. To do this, you can reuse the Symfony web server SSL certificate:

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// webpack.config.js
  // ...
+ const path = require('path');

  Encore
      // ...

+     .configureDevServerOptions(options => {
+         options.server = {
+             type: 'https',
+             options: {
+                 pfx: path.join(process.env.HOME, '.symfony5/certs/default.p12'),
+             }
+         }
+     })

CORS Issues

If you experience issues related to CORS (Cross Origin Resource Sharing), set the following option:

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// webpack.config.js
// ...

Encore
    // ...

    .configureDevServerOptions(options => {
        options.allowedHosts = 'all';
        // in older Webpack Dev Server versions, use this option instead:
        // options.firewall = false;
    })

Beware that this is not a recommended security practice in general, but here it's required to solve the CORS issue.

Hot Module Replacement HMR

Hot module replacement is a superpower of the dev-server where styles and (in some cases) JavaScript can automatically update without needing to reload your page. HMR works automatically with CSS (as long as you're using the dev-server and Encore 1.0 or higher) but only works with some JavaScript (like Vue.js).

1.0.0

Before Encore 1.0, you needed to pass a --hot flag at the command line to enable HMR. You also needed to disable CSS extraction to enable HMR for CSS. That is no longer needed.