webpack bundles files but index.js isn't running

Question

I have an index.js file that imports my CSS and a few packages, but after bundling everything and starting the server I noticed that index.js wasn't running. I did a simple console.log in index.js and it isn't reached.

I copied the contents of my webpack.config file from a previous project which was working correctly, so I'm not sure if it's a file structure/path error or what not. Any thoughts?

Directory structure:

webpack.config.js:

const path = require('path')
const webpack = require('webpack');
const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require('html-webpack-plugin')
var $ = require("jquery");

var HtmlWebpackPluginConfig = new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
    template: './src/index.html',
    filename: 'RecruitmentTracking.txt',
    inject: 'body'
});

module.exports = {
  entry: "./src/index.js", // removing the . fails the build
  output: {
    filename: './SiteAssets/scripts/RecruitmentTracking.js',
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist')
  },

  module: {
    rules: [{
      loader: 'babel-loader',
      test: /\.js$/,
      exclude: /node_modules/
    }, {
        test: /\.css$/,
        use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader']
    }, {
        test: /\.(png|svg|jpg|gif)$/,
        use: [
          'file-loader'
        ]
      }
    ],
  },
    devServer: {
        disableHostCheck: true
    },
    devtool: 'cheap-module-eval-source-map', // this helps the browser point to the exact file in the console, helps in debug
    devServer: {
        contentBase: path.join(__dirname, 'src'),
        historyApiFallback: true // this prevents the default browser full page refresh on form submission and link change
    },
    plugins: [
        HtmlWebpackPluginConfig,
        new webpack.ProvidePlugin({
            "$": "jquery",
            "jQuery": "jquery",
            "window.jQuery": "jquery"
    })]
}

index.js:

import "./RecruitmentTracking.css";
import 'jquery';
import 'bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.bundle.min.js';
import 'jquery-ui-bundle/jquery-ui.min.js';

console.log('this is index.js');

package.json:

{
  "name": "recruitmenttracking",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Recruitment Initiatives Tracking",
  "main": "index.js", // ----- should a more specific file path be here?
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
    "start": "webpack-dev-server --open --mode development",
    "build": "webpack --config webpack.config.js",
    "dev-server": "webpack-dev-server"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "devDependencies": {
    "@babel/cli": "^7.2.3",
    "@babel/core": "^7.4.0",
    "@babel/preset-env": "^7.4.2",
    "babel-loader": "^8.0.5",
    "css-loader": "^2.1.1",
    "file-loader": "^3.0.1",
    "html-webpack-plugin": "^3.2.0",
    "style-loader": "^0.23.1",
    "webpack": "^4.29.6",
    "webpack-cli": "^3.3.0",
    "webpack-dev-server": "^3.2.1"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@babel/polyfill": "^7.4.0",
    "axios": "^0.18.0",
    "bootstrap": "^4.3.1",
    "jquery": "^3.3.1",
    "jquery-ui-bundle": "^1.12.1-migrate",
    "pdfmake": "^0.1.54",
    "popper": "^1.0.1"
  }
}

Answer 1

What's happening here is:

1 - webpack compiles and outputs into: './SiteAssets/scripts/RecruitmentTracking.js'

2 - HtmlWebpackPlugin, will then read the template file './src/index.html', and inject RecruitmentTracking.js script inside the body.

3 - then, it outputs the result to dist/RecruitmentTracking.txt

I don't see any problem, apart from the file being a .txt and not .html. and would obviously not be interpreted by the browser.

Try outputting to an html file instead, it should work

Answer 2

1) For some reason you've configured the following plugin to output a .txt file. So don't expect the browser to intepret that as a html file

var HtmlWebpackPluginConfig = new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
    template: './src/index.html',
    filename: 'RecruitmentTracking.txt',
    inject: 'body'
});

2) Also I believe that file that you're opening in the browser is /dist/index.html and that file doesn't load your js file. Try adding the following line into /dist/index.html:

<script src"./SiteAssets/scripts/RecruitmentTracking.js"></script>

3) If the above works, please still consider taking a closer look at (1)