ProvidePlugin

new webpack.ProvidePlugin({identifier1: 'module1', /* ... */})

Automatically loads modules. Whenever the identifier is encountered as free variable in a module, the module is loaded automatically and the identifier is filled with the exports of the loaded module.

Typical use-cases

Use jQuery

new webpack.ProvidePlugin({
  $: 'jquery',
  jQuery: 'jquery'
})

// in a module
$('#item'); // <= just works
jQuery('#item'); // <= just works
// $ is automatically set to the exports of module "jquery"

Use jQuery with Angular 1

Angular looks for window.jQuery in order to determine whether jQuery is present, see the source code

new webpack.ProvidePlugin({
  'window.jQuery': 'jquery'
})