Gulp task for starting webpack-dev-server

gulp.dev.js

const webpack          	 = require('webpack');
const WebpackDevServer 	 = require('webpack-dev-server');
const webpackConfig    	 = require('./webpack.config.js');
const browserSync 	     = require('browser-sync');
// a nice npm module written to have BrowserSync work with Webpack 
// and webpack-dev-server
const BrowserSyncPlugin  = require('browser-sync-webpack-plugin');
const renderTemplate	   = require('./build/gulp/template');
const clients 		       = require('./build/gulp/clients')();
let browserSyncInstance;

gulp.task("webpack-dev-server", ['watch', 'renderDevTemplate', 'buildStyles'], () => {
  const servername = 'bsserver'; // this name can be anything
  const bsConfig = {
    host: 'localhost',
    port: 4000  // 4000 (my API server was on 3001, so anything different)
  };
  const bspluginConfig = {
    // prevent BrowserSync from reloading the page
    // and let Webpack Dev Server take care of this
    reload: false,

    // this name can be anything, it is just needed for the callback seen below
    name: servername,

    // This gets the BrowserSync Instance
    callback: () => { browserSyncInstance = browserSync.get(servername) }
  };

  const _config = Object.assign(webpackConfig(), {
    plugins: [
      new BrowserSyncPlugin(bsConfig, bspluginConfig),  // hook up BrowserSync for css updating
      new webpack.HotModuleReplacementPlugin(),         // to enable HMR for webpack-dev-server
      new webpack.NamedModulesPlugin()                  // needed for HMR error handling
    ]
  });
  const config = webpack(_config);

  // start off webpack dev server just like in the docs and examples
  // useful links:
  // https://webpack.github.io/docs/usage-with-gulp.html
  // https://github.com/webpack/webpack-with-common-libs/blob/master/gulpfile.js
  
  new WebpackDevServer(config, _config.devServer).listen(8080, 'localhost', (err) => {
    if(err) throw new gutil.PluginError("webpack-dev-server", err);
    gutil.log("[webpack-dev-server]", "http://localhost:8080/webpack-dev-server/index.html");
  });
});