Import image into React component fails on server-side render

[mattburrell]

I'm using the ReactRedux template but I'm using ES6 not TypeScript.

I'm trying to import an image into a React component but when I run webpack I get a module parse failure:

ERROR in ./ClientApp/components/logo.gif                                                                                               
Module parse failed: C:\Users\user\Documents\lms_v2\ClientApp\components\logo.gif Unexpected character '�' (1:6)             
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.                                                                           
SyntaxError: Unexpected character '�' (1:6) 

My component looks like this:

import React from 'react';
import NavMenu from './NavMenu';
import logo from './logo.gif';

export default class Layout extends React.Component {
    render() {
        return (
            <div>
                <div className="row main">
                    <div className="col-md-2">
                        <a className="navbar-brand" href="#">
                            <img alt="Logo" src={logo} />
                        </a>
                        <NavMenu />
                    </div>
                    <div className="col-md-3">
                        {this.props.left}
                    </div>
                    <div className="col-md-4">
                        {this.props.body}
                    </div>
                    <div className="col-md-3">
                        {this.props.right}
                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
        );
    }
}

Here is my webpack.config.js:

var isDevBuild = process.argv.indexOf('--env.prod') < 0;
var path = require('path');
var webpack = require('webpack');
var ExtractTextPlugin = require('extract-text-webpack-plugin');
var nodeExternals = require('webpack-node-externals');
var merge = require('webpack-merge');
var allFilenamesExceptJavaScript = /\.(?!js(\?|$))([^.]+(\?|$))/;

// Configuration in common to both client-side and server-side bundles
var sharedConfig = () => ({
    resolve: { extensions: [ '', '.js' ] },
    output: {
        filename: '[name].js',
        publicPath: '/dist/' // Webpack dev middleware, if enabled, handles requests for this URL prefix
    },
    module: {
        loaders: [
            { test: /\.js?$/, include: /ClientApp/, loader: 'babel-loader' }
        ]
    }
});

// Configuration for client-side bundle suitable for running in browsers
var clientBundleOutputDir = './wwwroot/dist';
var clientBundleConfig = merge(sharedConfig(), {
    entry: { 'main-client': './ClientApp/boot-client.js' },
    module: {
        loaders: [
            { test: /\.css$/, loader: ExtractTextPlugin.extract(['css']) },
            { test: /\.(png|jpg|jpeg|gif|svg)$/, loader: 'url', query: { limit: 25000 } }
        ]
    },
    output: { path: path.join(__dirname, clientBundleOutputDir) },
    devtool: isDevBuild ? 'inline-source-map' : null,
    plugins: [
        new ExtractTextPlugin('core.css'),
        new webpack.DllReferencePlugin({
            context: __dirname,
            manifest: require('./wwwroot/dist/vendor-manifest.json')
        })
    ].concat(isDevBuild ? [
        // Plugins that apply in development builds only
        new webpack.SourceMapDevToolPlugin({
            filename: '[file].map', // Remove this line if you prefer inline source maps
            moduleFilenameTemplate: path.relative(clientBundleOutputDir, '[resourcePath]') // Point sourcemap entries to the original file locations on disk
        })
    ] : [
        // Plugins that apply in production builds only
        new webpack.optimize.OccurenceOrderPlugin(),
        new webpack.optimize.UglifyJsPlugin({ compress: { warnings: false } })
    ])
});

// Configuration for server-side (prerendering) bundle suitable for running in Node
var serverBundleConfig = merge(sharedConfig(), {
    entry: { 'main-server': './ClientApp/boot-server.js' },
    output: {
        libraryTarget: 'commonjs',
        path: path.join(__dirname, './ClientApp/dist')
    },
    target: 'node',
    devtool: 'inline-source-map',
    externals: [nodeExternals({ whitelist: [allFilenamesExceptJavaScript] })] // Don't bundle .js files from node_modules
});

module.exports = [clientBundleConfig, serverBundleConfig];

Any pointers you could give would be much appreciated.

[MarkPieszak]

Matt, try something like:

<img src={ require('./logo.gif') }/>

This way the loader might handle it properly. Don't remember if that will work, I'm not by a computer at the moment.

The best alternative is using CSS, and putting the image in the regular background-image property there, the loader will handle that correctly as well.

Hope that helps!

[mattburrell]

Thanks @MarkPieszak. I tried using require but got the same error.

Will have to go down the CSS route as you suggest!

[mattburrell]

Ah it works when I move the loaders from the clientBundleConfig to the sharedConfig. Doh.

[MarkPieszak]

There it is 🙈😃