send/docs/build.md

Send has two build configurations, development and production. Both can be run via npm scripts, npm start for development and npm run build for production. Webpack is our only build tool and all configuration lives in webpack.config.js.

Development

npm start launches a webpack-dev-server on port 8080 that compiles the assets and watches files for changes. It also serves the backend API and frontend unit tests via the server/bin/dev.js entrypoint. The frontend tests can be run in the browser by navigating to http://localhost:8080/test and will rerun automatically as the watched files are saved with changes.

Production

npm run build compiles the assets and writes the files to the dist/ directory. npm run prod launches an Express server on port 1443 that serves the backend API and frontend static assets from dist/ via the server/bin/prod.js entrypoint.

Notable differences

• Development compiles assets in memory, so no dist/ directory is generated
• Development does not enable CSP headers
• Development frontend source is instrumented for code coverage
• Only development includes sourcemaps
• Only development exposes the /test route
• Production sets Cache-Control immutable headers on the hashed static assets

Custom Loaders

The build/ directory contains custom webpack loaders specific to Send. See build/readme.md for details on each loader.