using d3.js as an external in webpack

Question

I'm using this tutorial to setup a React.js project with webpack. The webpack.config.js below is almost an exact copy (except that I'm using an app and 'dist' folder), and I am also adding d3.js as an external. Because React is added as an external it lets me do require('react') in any of my app files without including it in the bundle. I wish to do the same with d3.js and have installed it as a node_module, and listed it in the externals area of my webpack config, but when I do require('d3') i get an error message that it's not available.

How can I use d3 (or jQuery for that matter) as an external if I have it installed as a node_module?

this is my project setup

/app
/dist
/node_modules
package.json
webpack.config.js

module.exports = {
    entry: './app/index.jsx',
    output: {
        path: './dist',
        filename: 'bundle.js', //this is the default name, so you can skip it
        //at this directory our bundle file will be available
        //make sure port 8090 is used when launching webpack-dev-server
        publicPath: 'http://localhost:8090/assets'
    },
    module: {
        loaders: [
            {
                //tell webpack to use jsx-loader for all *.jsx files
                test: /\.jsx$/,
                loader: 'jsx-loader?insertPragma=React.DOM&harmony'
            }
        ]
    },
    externals: {
        //don't bundle the 'react' npm package with our bundle.js
        //but get it from a global 'React' variable

        'react': 'React',
        'd3': 'd3'
    },
    resolve: {
        modulesDirectories: ['app', 'node_modules'],
        extensions: ['', '.js', '.jsx']
    }
}

Answer 1

I know this question has been open a while, but hopefully this answer is still useful!

If you have installed d3 (or jQuery) as a node_module, you can use the webpack ProvidePlugin to tie an arbitrary key to a module.

The key will be then be available to require anywhere in your webpack app.

E.g. webpack.config.js

{
 ...lots of webpack config here...
 ...
 plugins: [
    new webpack.ProvidePlugin({
        d3: 'd3',
        $: 'jquery'
    })
 ]
 ...
}

Then in my-file.js

var d3 = require('d3')

Hope that helps!