I am a dev on a web application that consists of Java Server Pages which act as the HTML, a Java backend, and Javascript front-end files. I have been tasked with looking into adding Webpack to the project, with the goal of only using it to minify Javascript files at first (eventually we will use more of Webpack's features of course). I have tried doing research via Google into Webpack minification, but I am having trouble finding anything detailing how to use it for just minification, instead of bundling the project files.
Does anyone know how to use Webpack for strictly Javscript minification?
Webpack out of the box is anticipating on processing JS and will run minification on production builds by default.
https://webpack.js.org/configuration/mode/ (different build modes)
Assuming you are already past configuring a JS entry file to consume all your JS files: https://webpack.js.org/configuration/entry-context/#entry
AND configured a loader on how to handle each JS file imported in your entry file appropriately.
(Feels like you want asset/resource. Pay close attention to asset modules type and generator options)
https://webpack.js.org/guides/asset-modules/
The settings for minification on a production build are what is known as the optimization.minimize configuration of your webpack.
https://webpack.js.org/configuration/optimization/#optimizationminimize
With Webpack5, further options around the minification engine has been exposed and is known as optimization.minimizer configuration options:
https://webpack.js.org/configuration/optimization/#optimizationminimizer