Installing Encore

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Installing Encore

First, make sure you install Node.js. Optionally you can also install the Yarn package manager. In the next sections you will always see the commands for both npm and yarn, but you only need to run one of them.

The following instructions depend on whether you are installing Encore in a Symfony application or not.

Installing Encore in Symfony Applications

Run these commands to install both the PHP and JavaScript dependencies in your project:

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$ composer require symfony/webpack-encore-bundle

# if you use the Yarn package manager
$ yarn install

# if you use the npm package manager
$ npm install

If you are using Symfony Flex, this will install and enable the WebpackEncoreBundle, create the assets/ directory, add a webpack.config.js file, and add node_modules/ to .gitignore. You can skip the rest of this article and go write your first JavaScript and CSS by reading Encore: Setting up your Project!

If you are not using Symfony Flex, you'll need to create all these directories and files by yourself following the instructions shown in the next section.

Installing Encore in non Symfony Applications

Install Encore into your project via Yarn:

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# if you use the Yarn package manager
$ yarn add @symfony/webpack-encore --dev

# if you use the npm package manager
$ npm install @symfony/webpack-encore --save-dev

This command creates (or modifies) a package.json file and downloads dependencies into a node_modules/ directory. Yarn also creates/updates a yarn.lock (called package-lock.json if you use npm).

Tip

You should commit package.json and yarn.lock (or package-lock.json if using npm) to version control, but ignore node_modules/.

Creating the webpack.config.js File

Next, create a new webpack.config.js file at the root of your project. This is the main config file for both Webpack and Webpack Encore:

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const Encore = require('@symfony/webpack-encore');

// Manually configure the runtime environment if not already configured yet by the "encore" command.
// It's useful when you use tools that rely on webpack.config.js file.
if (!Encore.isRuntimeEnvironmentConfigured()) {
    Encore.configureRuntimeEnvironment(process.env.NODE_ENV || 'dev');
}

Encore
    // directory where compiled assets will be stored
    .setOutputPath('public/build/')
    // public path used by the web server to access the output path
    .setPublicPath('/build')
    // only needed for CDN's or sub-directory deploy
    //.setManifestKeyPrefix('build/')

    /*
     * ENTRY CONFIG
     *
     * Each entry will result in one JavaScript file (e.g. app.js)
     * and one CSS file (e.g. app.css) if your JavaScript imports CSS.
     */
    .addEntry('app', './assets/app.js')

    // enables the Symfony UX Stimulus bridge (used in assets/bootstrap.js)
    .enableStimulusBridge('./assets/controllers.json')

    // When enabled, Webpack "splits" your files into smaller pieces for greater optimization.
    .splitEntryChunks()

    // will require an extra script tag for runtime.js
    // but, you probably want this, unless you're building a single-page app
    .enableSingleRuntimeChunk()

    /*
     * FEATURE CONFIG
     *
     * Enable & configure other features below. For a full
     * list of features, see:
     * https://symfony.com/doc/current/frontend.html#adding-more-features
     */
    .cleanupOutputBeforeBuild()
    .enableBuildNotifications()
    .enableSourceMaps(!Encore.isProduction())
    // enables hashed filenames (e.g. app.abc123.css)
    .enableVersioning(Encore.isProduction())

    .configureBabel((config) => {
        config.plugins.push('@babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties');
    })

    // enables @babel/preset-env polyfills
    .configureBabelPresetEnv((config) => {
        config.useBuiltIns = 'usage';
        config.corejs = 3;
    })

    // enables Sass/SCSS support
    //.enableSassLoader()

    // uncomment if you use TypeScript
    //.enableTypeScriptLoader()

    // uncomment if you use React
    //.enableReactPreset()

    // uncomment to get integrity="..." attributes on your script & link tags
    // requires WebpackEncoreBundle 1.4 or higher
    //.enableIntegrityHashes(Encore.isProduction())

    // uncomment if you're having problems with a jQuery plugin
    //.autoProvidejQuery()
;

module.exports = Encore.getWebpackConfig();

Next, open the new assets/app.js file which contains some JavaScript code and imports some CSS:

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// assets/app.js
/*
 * Welcome to your app's main JavaScript file!
 *
 * We recommend including the built version of this JavaScript file
 * (and its CSS file) in your base layout (base.html.twig).
 */

// any CSS you import will output into a single css file (app.css in this case)
import './styles/app.css';

// start the Stimulus application
import './bootstrap';

And the new assets/styles/app.css file:

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/* assets/styles/app.css */
body {
    background-color: lightgray;
}

You should also add an assets/bootstrap.js file, which initializes Stimulus: a system that you'll learn about soon:

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// assets/bootstrap.js
import { startStimulusApp } from '@symfony/stimulus-bridge';

// Registers Stimulus controllers from controllers.json and in the controllers/ directory
export const app = startStimulusApp(require.context(
    '@symfony/stimulus-bridge/lazy-controller-loader!./controllers',
    true,
    /\.(j|t)sx?$/
));

// register any custom, 3rd party controllers here
// app.register('some_controller_name', SomeImportedController);

And finally, create an assets/controllers.json file, which also fits into the Stimulus system:

}

You'll customize and learn more about these files in Encore: Setting up your Project. When you execute Encore, it will ask you to install a few more dependencies based on which features of Encore you have enabled.

Caution

Some of the documentation will use features that are specific to Symfony or Symfony's WebpackEncoreBundle. These are optional, and are special ways of pointing to the asset paths generated by Encore that enable features like versioning and split chunks.

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.