Using NPM packages without Webpack

Question

I am used to using NPM packages with Webpack, but I'm wondering how you're supposed to use NPM packages without Webpack. I know how to install packages. I just don't know how to use them, since you can't just import modules in plain js.

Answer 1

Webpack compiles a bunch of javascript files and combines them into a single one for web distribution. NPM downloads javascript files through packages.

Here's some scenarios where you might use NPM without webpack

1. You are doing Node.js server-side javascript development. There's no webpack here
2. You are using a webpack alternative like rollup or browserify
3. You directly do anything else with the files npm downloads. Maybe you concatenate, throw them in a Makefile or maybe you expose node_modules directly to the world and reference their full paths directly.

Most of my web and server-side development is without webpack.