Using Webpack CSS Loader

May 8, 2020

Webpack's CSS Loader handles bundling CSS assets. Using the css-loader npm module, you can import CSS as a plain string in your JavaScript.

For example, given the below app.js file:

const css = require('./style.css').toString();
console.log(css);

And the below style.css file:

h1 { color: green; }

The below Webpack config will compile app.js into a bundle that prints h1 { color: green; } when it is run, either in Node.js or in the browser.

module.exports = {
  entry: `${__dirname}/example/app.js`,
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/,
        use: 'css-loader',
        exclude: /node_modules/
      }
    ]
  },
  resolve: {
    extensions: ['.css', '.js']
  },
  output: {
    filename: 'main.js',
    path: `${__dirname}/example/dist`
  }
};

Why CSS Loader Matters

Being able to load CSS as a string is neat, but typically not useful on its own. That's why CSS Loader is usually used in conjunction with other loaders, like style-loader. By default, style-loader inserts one <style> tag into the page's <head> for every imported CSS file. So given the below app.js file:

require('./style.css');

document.querySelector('body').innerHTML = '<h1>Hello, World</h1>';

And the below webpack.config.js:

const webpack = require('webpack');

const config = {
  entry: `${__dirname}/example/app.js`,
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.css$/,
        use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader'],
        exclude: /node_modules/
      }
    ]
  },
  resolve: {
    extensions: ['.css', '.js']
  },
  output: {
    filename: 'main.js',
    path: `${__dirname}/example/dist`
  }
};

You get a green "Hello, World" with no <style> tags.

Using CSS loader to import styles is overkill for most apps, and you normally shouldn't use it. CSS loader is often used to get scoped styles, but Vue already supports scoped CSS. So CSS loader can be useful if you need scoped styles but can't use Vue's single file components.


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