Grunt, Webpack, and the DllPlugin

Question

I'm having trouble visualizing how I can leverage the DllPlugin/DllReferencePlugin with Webpack while also using Grunt for the building. For those without knowledge, the DllPlugin creates a separate bundle that can be shared with other bundles. It also creates a manifest file (important) to help with the linking. Then, the DllReferencePlugin is used by another bundle when building to grab the previous made DllPlugin Bundle. To do this, it requires the manifest file created previously.

In Grunt, this would require the manifest file created before grunt even runs, no? Heres a simplified code example:

webpack.dll.js

// My Dll Bundles, which creates
// - ./bundles/my_dll.js
// - ./bundles/my_dll-manifest.json
module.exports = {

    entry: {
        my_dll : './dll.js'
    },
    // where to send final bundle
    output: {
        path: './bundles',
        filename: "[name].js"
    },
    // CREATES THE MANIFEST
    plugins: [
        new webpack.DllPlugin({
            path: "./bundles/[name]-manifest.json",
            name: "[name]_lib"
        })
    ]
};

webpack.app.js

// My Referencing Bundle, which includes
// - ./bundles/app.js
module.exports = {

    entry: {
        my_app : './app.js'
    },
    // where to send final bundle
    output: {
        path: './bundles',
        filename: "[name].js"
    },
    // SETS UP THE REFERENCE TO THE DLL
    plugins: [
        new webpack.DllReferencePlugin({
          context: '.',
          // IMPORTANT LINE, AND WHERE EVERYTHING SEEMS TO FAIL
          manifest: require('./bundles/my_dll-manifest.json')
        })
    ]
};

If you look in the second section, webpack.app.js, I've commented where everything would seem to fail in grunt. For the DllReferencePlugin to work, it needs the manifest file from the DllPlugin, but in a Grunt workflow, grunt will load both of these configurations on initialization of grunt itself, causing the manifest: require('./bundles/my_dll-manifest.json') line to fail, because the previous grunt step that builds webpack.dll.js has not completed, meaning manifest does not yet exist.

Answer 1

var path = require("path");
var util = require('util')
var webpack = require("webpack");

var MyDllReferencePlugin = function(options){
    webpack.DllReferencePlugin.call(this, options);
}

MyDllReferencePlugin.prototype.apply = function(compiler) {
    if (typeof this.options.manifest == 'string') {
        this.options.manifest = require(this.options.manifest);
    }

    webpack.DllReferencePlugin.prototype.apply.call(this, compiler);
};


// My Referencing Bundle, which includes
// - ./bundles/app.js
module.exports = {

    entry: {
        my_app : './app.js'
    },
    // where to send final bundle
    output: {
        path: './bundles',
        filename: "[name].js"
    },
    // SETS UP THE REFERENCE TO THE DLL
    plugins: [
        new MyDllReferencePlugin({
          context: '.',
          // IMPORTANT LINE, AND WHERE EVERYTHING SEEMS TO FAIL
          manifest: path.resolve('./bundles/my_dll-manifest.json')
        })
    ]
};