Tree shaking JSON files with webpack
Blog post from LogRocket
Tree shaking is an essential process for developers as it removes dead code and unused elements, optimizing the size of the final production build. Tools like rollup.js and webpack facilitate tree shaking by default when bundling JavaScript files, but additional steps are required for JSON files, necessitating plugins like webpack-json-access-optimizer. This plugin transforms JSON structures to arrays, allowing unused data to be effectively removed, thus conserving space and improving load times. Moreover, tree shaking can be applied to JavaScript functions and CSS files to further enhance efficiency by eliminating unutilized exports and unused styling rules, respectively. Implementing these techniques in development projects not only reduces the build size but also contributes to faster page loading, making applications more efficient and production-ready.