A minimal Node web app starter with Express, Webpack, and Gulp.

Features
Setup
Develop
Build
Test
Directory Structure

• All code written using ES6 including server and client javascript, webpack configuration, and gulpfile.
• Client framework agnostic (Vue or React would be easy additions).
• Database agnostic (Mongo, Postgres, Sequelize, Mongoose, and/or Redis could be easily added).
• Server javascript is transpiled on save using gulp-babel.
• Server listening and restarting with nodemon.
• Assets bundled, copied, or compressed with Webpack:
  • SASS compiled and minimized on save with Webpack.
  • Client javascript minified and compressed using Webpack & Uglify.
  • Image compression using Webpack & Imagemin.
• Browser live reloading when server of client changes.
• Lint on save with ESLint.
• Server-side templates with Pug.
• Helpful npm scripts.

Node 8.9.0 (Current LTS)
NPM 5.5.1
Express 4.16.2
Webpack 3.8.1
Gulp 3.9.1
Yarn 1.3.2

This starter is dependent upon Node.

Node version 8.9.0 and NPM version 5.5.1 are preferable. I recommend Node Version Manager for managing Node versions. If you have NVM you can run nvm use to source the proper version from the included .nvmrc

The NPM scripts in this starter are dependent upon Yarn. Install using Brew if you're on a mac or install a different way.

Yarn is faster and makes script running easier with it's terse CLI syntax. Technically, you don't have to use it. If you want to use npm you can change the NPM script commands in package.json to use npm run rather than yarn.

To enable live reloading in your browser when the server and/or asset files change, download the Chrome LiveReload plugin.

To begin development, clone the project and install the dependencies:

yarn

Run start:dev to watch and and restart the server automatically:

yarn start:dev

Run webpack:watch to watch and process assets:

yarn webpack:watch

To build the server and assets on a production server run:

yarn build

Then run the production server:

yarn start:prod

Mocha and Chai are used for unit testing:

yarn test

.
├──bin
│   └──www
├──src
│   ├──assets
│   ├──controllers
│   ├──middleware
│   ├──routes
│   ├──utils
│   └──views
└──test
    └──unit