webpack-dev-middleware and Express - can't get them to collaborate - node.js

Question

I am trying to set up my first project using Webpack and Express but somehow I am doing something wrong.
This is what I did:
1. CREATED SAMPLE PROJECT
Created a sample project using express-generator. My folder structure is something like:
express-project
-app.js
-webpack.config.js
-public
-javascripts
-modules
-build
2. SET UP HANDLEBARS
Set up handlebars as view/template engine and created a couple of routes
3. WEBPACK CODE
Created the Webpack specific code/configuration as follows
webpack.config.js
var webpack = require('webpack');
var path = require('path');
var webpackHotMiddleware = 'webpack-hot-middleware/client?path=/__webpack_hmr&timeout=2000&overlay=false';
module.exports = {
resolve: {
alias: {
handlebars: path.resolve('public/vendor/handlebars-v4.0.5.js'),
bootstrap: path.resolve('public/vendor/bootstrap/js/bootstrap.js'),
pubsub: path.resolve('public/vendor/ba-tiny-pubsub.js')
}
},
context: path.resolve('public/javascripts'),
entry: {
cart: ['./modules/cart', webpackHotMiddleware],
index: ['./modules/products.js', webpackHotMiddleware],
vendor: ['bootstrap', 'pubsub', webpackHotMiddleware]
},
output: {
path: path.resolve('public/javascripts/build'),
publicPath: 'javascripts/build/',
filename: '[name].js',
chunkFilename: "[id].js"
},
module: {
loaders: [
// some loaders here
]
},
plugins: [
new webpack.optimize.OccurenceOrderPlugin(),
new webpack.HotModuleReplacementPlugin(),
new webpack.NoErrorsPlugin()
]
}
app.js
// some code before
var app = express();
(function() {
// Step 1: Create & configure a webpack compiler
var webpack = require('webpack');
var webpackConfig = require(process.env.WEBPACK_CONFIG ? process.env.WEBPACK_CONFIG : './webpack.config');
var compiler = webpack(webpackConfig);
// Step 2: Attach the dev middleware to the compiler & the server
app.use(require("webpack-dev-middleware")(compiler, {
noInfo: false,
publicPath: webpackConfig.output.publicPath,
stats: {
colors: true
}
}));
// Step 3: Attach the hot middleware to the compiler & the server
app.use(require("webpack-hot-middleware")(compiler, {
log: console.log,
path: '/__webpack_hmr',
heartbeat: 10 * 1000
}));
})();
// some code after
4. JS CODE ON TEMPLATE
Then on the handlebars page I require the bundled javascripts
<script src="javascripts/build/common.js"></script>
<script src="javascripts/build/vendor.js"></script>
<script src="javascripts/build/cart.js"></script>
5. NPM START
Finally if I start the server using the standard npm start I see in the shell that webpack bundles everything with no errors but if I go to localhost:3000/ it does not find any of the assets created by Webpack. Instead if I run webpack to create the various bundles as if I were on production, everything is created correctly and it works as expected.
Hope someone can figure out what I am doing wrong.
Thanks

Answer 1

I managed to figure out what was causing the problem, by adding a slash in these 2 lines everything started to work properly:
context: path.resolve('public/javascripts/'),
path: path.resolve('public/javascripts/build/'),