How do I include jQuery in a project with babel, Node.js, and webpack?

Question

Looking at the jQuery documentation on npm , I'm confused as to what I have to do to use it. I know that I can just include the script tag in my index.html to use it, but how does everything else work?

If I choose to not use the script tag, I understand that I can install with node and then import it with Babel into any file that I want to use jQuery in. But where does webpack come into play? I only have to use webpack's require if I'm not using Babel, correct? Is webpack's require an alternative to Babel's import?

It seems like either I can use Babel and Node.js or webpack and Node.js? I thought Babel and wepback serves separate purposes though, with Babel trans-compiling ECMAScript 6 to ECMAScript 5 and webpack bundling all your files into one. If I'm currently using webpack, Babel, and Node.js. What is the best way to include and use jQuery?

Answer 1

If you plan on working anywhere without an Internet connection, go ahead and npm install the minified version of jQuery into your modules.

Otherwise, I would use the CDN in the HTML file for easy global jQuery access. It doesn't really make a difference how you include it in your project in terms of webpack/babel methods; just be sure to stay consistent with how you import them. The only difference is that require is ECMAScript 5 and import is ECMAScript 6.