Pattern Lab Node - Webpack Edition

The webpack wrapper around Pattern Lab Node Core providing tasks to interact with the core library and move supporting frontend assets.

Packaged Components

The webpack edition comes with the following components:

• patternlab-node: GitHub, npm
• patternengine-node-mustache: GitHub, npm
• pattern-lab/styleguidekit-assets-default: GitHub
• pattern-lab/styleguidekit-mustache-default: GitHub

Prerequisites

The Pattern Lab Node - webpack edition uses Node for core processing, npm to manage project dependencies, and webpack.io to run tasks and interface with the core library. Node version 4 or higher suffices. You can follow the directions for installing Node on the Node website if you haven't done so already. Installation of Node will include npm.

Quickstart Guide

Note: You must have all of the prerequisites first

1. Download the .zip or fork this repository, then clone it locally.

   git clone [email protected]:YOURGROUP/patternlab-edition-node-webpack.git

2. In a terminal window, navigate to the downloaded directory

   cd path/to/patternlab-edition-node-webpack

3. To populate Patternlab with sample data, install a starter kit, there are many starterkits choose from

   npm install starterkit-mustache-demo

4. Generate sample files

   npm run patternlab:loadstarterkit --kit=starterkit-mustache-demo

5. Show Patternlab in a Webbrowser

   npm run patternlab:serve

Installing

npm install

What's Included

The pre-built project comes with the Base Starterkit for Mustache installed by default.

Please note: Pattern Lab Node uses npm to manage project dependencies. To upgrade the webpack edition or to install plug-ins you'll need to be familiar with npm.

Use npm

npm is a dependency management and package system which can pull in all of the webpack editions's dependencies for you. To accomplish this:

• download or git clone this repository to an install location.

• run the following

  cd install/location
  npm install
  

Running npm install from a directory containing a package.json file will download all dependencies defined within. The package-lock.json file is automatically managaged everytime you add/remove/upgrade a dependency.

Install the Webpack Edition of Pattern Lab Node as a Dependency

Most people want to run Pattern Lab Node standalone and not as a dependency. If you wish to install as a dependency you can do the following:

Use npm's install command with an argument to install the Webpack Edition into a location of your choosing. In Terminal type:

cd install/location/
npm install edition-node-webpack

This will install the Webpack Edition into a directory called node_modules in install/location/.

Getting Started

The Pattern Lab Node - Webpack Edition ships with a base experience which serves as clean place to start from scratch with Pattern Lab. But if you want to get rolling with a starterkit of your own, or use the demo starterkit like the one on demo.patternlab.io, you can do so automatically at time of npm install by adding your starterkit to the package.json file.

You can also work with starterkits using the command line.

Updating Pattern Lab

To update Pattern Lab please refer to each component's GitHub repository, and the master instructions for core. The components are listed at the top of the README.

List all of the available commands

To list all available commands type:

npm run patternlab:help

Generate Pattern Lab

To generate the front-end for Pattern Lab type:

npm run patternlab:build

Watch for changes and re-generate Pattern Lab

To watch for changes, re-generate the front-end, and server it via a BrowserSync server, type:

npm run patternlab:serve

Webpack dev server should open http://localhost:3000 in your browser, both host and port are configurable in the patternlab-config.json file.

Install a StarterKit

To install a specific StarterKit from GitHub type:

npm install [starterkit-name]

npm run patternlab:loadstarterkit --kit=[starterkit-name]

Pattern Lab - Configuration

Unlike the other editions, there were a few options added just for this edition that allow for easier upgrading, and better flexibility.

Custom Webpack Configuration and Merge Options

In this edition, it's important to make the configuration for webpack something very easy to update, and very easy to modify. The current setting for webpack custom configuration and merge are described here.

You can change how it merges by changing this object in patternlab-config.json:

    "webpackMerge": {
        "entry": "replace"
    },

By default merge does a append if that option works for you only set which webpack configuration you want to change. The merge setting is: smartStrategy which is documented over on this page.

Setting Webpack Dev Server

You can set several options to configure your dev server. You can also in the CLI pass any option on demand.

    "webpackDevServer": {
        "url": "http://localhost",
        "port": 3000,
        "watchContentBase": true,
        "watchOptions": {
            "aggregateTimeout": 500,
            "ignored": [],
            "info-verbosity": "verbose"
        }
    },

Modifying the compression settings for bundles

You can safely modify the following settings in the the main webpack.babel.config that can change how the bundles get optimized.

Note: in webpack 4, these settings are automatically triggered when mode=production when running the dev server this is not used.

All uglify settings are in the patternlab-config.json:

    "uglify": {
        "sourceMap": false,
        "parallel": true,
        "uglifyOptions": {
            "mangle": false
        }
    },

Namespace

In some cases you may want to add a namespace to your JS or CSS/SCSS files. You can now add a global NAMESPACE which can be read by any JS module. The sample of .scss includes how to use it in a .SCSS file.

This can be changed in thepatternlab-config.json under app:

    "app": {
        "namespace": ""
    }

Licenses

• babel-cli - MIT
• babel-core - MIT
• babel-polyfill -MIT
• babel-loader -MIT
• babel-preset-env - MIT
• babel-register -MIT
• copy-webpack-plugin - MIT
• event-hooks-webpack-plugin - MIT
• globby - MIT
• patternlab-node - MIT
• styleguidekit-assets-default - MIT
• styleguidekit-mustache-default - MIT
• uglifyjs-webpack-plugin - MIT
• webpack - MIT
• webpack-config-utils - MIT
• webpack-dev-server - MIT
• webpack-merge - MIT

Contributors

	Josh Schneider	GitHub
	Paul Wright	Website