version 2.3.0; support for RegExp search option

Author: Va1

README.md

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ $ npm install --save-dev string-replace-loader
 ```
 
 With release of 2.0.0 the loader is expected to be used in Node v4+ environment.
-Support for Node v3 and lower was dropped, but you can install and use the loader version of 1.3.0 in older environments. 
+Support for Node v3 and lower was dropped, but you can install and use the loader version of 1.3.0 in older environments.
 
 ## Usage:
 
@@ -42,13 +42,33 @@ module.exports = {
 
 ### RegEx replacement:
 
-To achieve regular expression replacement you should specify the `flags` option
-(as an empty string if you do not want any flags). In this case, `search` and `flags` are being
-passed to the [RegExp](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/RegExp) constructor
+To achieve regular expression replacement you should either specify the `search` option as
+[RegExp](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/RegExp) instance,
+either specify it as string and add the `flags` option (as an empty string if you do not want any flags).
+In the latter case, `search` and `flags` are being passed to the
+[RegExp](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/RegExp) constructor
 and this means that you should escape RegEx special characters in `search` if you want it to be replaced as a string.
 
 In your `webpack.config.js`:
 
+```javascript
+module.exports = {
+  // ...
+  module: {
+    rules: [
+      {
+        test: /fileInWhichJQueryIsUndefined\.js$/,
+        loader: 'string-replace-loader',
+        options: {
+          search: /\$/i,
+          replace: 'window.jQuery'
+        }
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}
+```
+or
 ```javascript
 module.exports = {
   // ...
@@ -117,7 +137,7 @@ module.exports = {
     ]
   }
 }
-``` 
+```
 
 ### Strict mode replacement:
 

lib/getOptionsArray.js

@@ -7,12 +7,19 @@ const optionsSchema = {
   type: 'object',
   properties: {
     search: {
-      type: 'string'
+      anyOf: [
+        {
+          instanceof: 'RegExp'
+        },
+        {
+          type: 'string'
+        }
+      ]
     },
     replace: {
       anyOf: [
         {
-          typeof: 'function'
+          instanceof: 'Function'
         },
         {
           type: 'string'

lib/replace.js

@@ -1,13 +1,17 @@
 
 function replace (source, options) {
   const { replace, flags, strict } = options
-  const search = (
-    flags === null
-      ? options.search
-      : new RegExp(options.search, flags)
-  )
+  let search
+  if (options.search instanceof RegExp) {
+    // if the `search` type is RegExp, we ignore `flags`
+    search = options.search
+  } else if (flags !== null) {
+    search = new RegExp(options.search, flags)
+  } else {
+    search = options.search
+  }
 
-  if (strict && (search === null || replace === null)) {
+  if (strict && (typeof search === 'undefined' || search === null || typeof replace === 'undefined' || replace === null)) {
     throw new Error('Replace failed (strict mode) : options.search and options.replace are required')
   }