Hot reloading Chrome extensions using Webpack

[rvasilev]

Webpack-dev-server can reload opened chrome page but it is not intended for reloading extension code. More info in this post.

Webpack plugin for this sort of magic: https://github.com/rubenspgcavalcante/webpack-chrome-extension-reloader

[intentionally-left-nil]

I was able to switch to it using this commit: intentionally-left-nil/des@1269fa2

[samuelsimoes]

The idea is great, I like it.

How do you guys think that this should be implemented?

I tried this implementation #45 but it removes the hot reloading, which is one thing that I want on this boilerplate.

I tried to implement it, just to test, like this: https://gist.github.com/samuelsimoes/80f7fe21814fec023008f77730a1623c

but it was causing full reloads when I changed my code (this on popup), even when not related to content scripts, which I believe that was caused because the extension reload.

Another problem was that every time that I start the server, I got this error: Loading Extension. failed to load extension from: XXXXX. Manifest file is missing or unreadable.

[intentionally-left-nil]

Thanks for taking a look!

Yes, the new code causes the whole extension to reload when making a change. For my needs, this is an acceptable dev environment. It hot-reloads in the sense that when I change code, the change is reflected in the plugin. It does require a refresh, compared to the old reloader.

As far as the second issue, I got that too, and I fixed it by removing the CleanWebpackPlugin plugin.

I have that fixed in my master branch, let me update this PR to include it too.

[intentionally-left-nil]

As far as what it fixes though: With the old hot-reloader, when I would change code, the react code wouldn't actually update properly, or it would cause react errors. Unless something is changed, the hot-reloading isn't working at all with the current setup