How to bundle node modules with native addons using webpack in node-webkit?

Question

I'm trying to build pty.js for use in node-webkit (i.e. nw.js) v0.8.6:

mkdir testapp && cd testapp
nvm use 0.10.36
npm install -g nw-gyp
npm install pty.js
cd node_modules/pty.js

# Build the native addon for node-webkit v0.8.6:
nw-gyp configure --target=0.8.6 && nw-gyp build

The output ends with gyp info ok.

With a simple app.js and index.html, the app launches with no errors in the JavaScript console:

<!-- index.html -->

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Hello World!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello World!</h1>
    <script src="app.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

// app.js

var pty = require('pty.js');

var term = pty.spawn('bash', [], {
  name: 'xterm-color',
  cols: 80,
  rows: 30,
  cwd: process.env.HOME,
  env: process.env
});

term.on('data', function(data) {
  console.log(data);
});

term.write('ls\r');
term.resize(100, 40);
term.write('ls /\r');

console.log(term.process);

package.json:

{
    "name": "testapp",
    "main": "index.html"
}

I want to support ES6 and JSX compilation via webpack by bundling app.js into bundle.js:

<!-- index.html -->

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Hello World!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello World!</h1>
    <script src="bundle.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

Bundling app.js:

npm install -g webpack
webpack app.js bundle.js --target="node-webkit"  # This fails

But webpack fails with this error:

Hash: 6c3cd8b4ec249ab8fd05
Version: webpack 1.6.0
Time: 76ms
    Asset   Size  Chunks             Chunk Names
bundle.js  21244       0  [emitted]  main
   [0] ./app.js 311 {0} [built]
    + 10 hidden modules

ERROR in ./~/pty.js/build/Release/pty.node
Module parse failed: /Users/Spencer/Desktop/testapp/node_modules/pty.js/build/Release/pty.node Line 1: Unexpected token ILLEGAL
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
(Source code omitted for this binary file)
 @ ./~/pty.js/lib/pty.js 10:10-46

Do I need to use a loader when requireing native binaries (like pty.node)? The webpack documentation says that the "node-webkit" target "supports native node.js modules"; perhaps it doesn't yet support native addons?

I don't have any experience with bundling to node-webkit, but you could give the [node-loader](https://github.com/webpack/node-loader) a try. — Johannes Ewald, Feb 28 '15 at 13:30

Spencer · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-11T16:32:11.463

While I wasn't able to get webpack working, I was able to get ES6 + JSX working by using require('babel/register'):

<!-- index.html -->

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>Hello World!</title>
</head>
<body>
  <main></main>
  <script>
    require('babel/register');
    require('./js/app');
  </script>
</body>
</html>

// ./js/app.js

import React from 'react';

React.render(
  <span>Hello World!</span>,
  document.querySelector('main')
);

How to bundle node modules with native addons using webpack in node-webkit?

1 Answers1