title: Invalid configuration object in webpack
body: <p>I am following <a href="https://www.lynda.com/React-js-tutorials/React-js-Essential-Training/496905-2.html" rel="noreferrer">Lynda.com - React.js essential training</a> by Eve Porcello. In the video "Building with Webpack", I followed the steps author described exactly, but the "webpack" command failed giving the following error,</p>
  
  <p><strong>Invalid configuration object. Webpack has been initialised using a configuration object that does not match the API schema.
   - configuration.output.path: The provided value "dist/assets" is not an absolute path!</strong></p>
  
  <p>Following are my webpack.config.js and package.json files.</p>
  
  <p><strong>webpack.config.js</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>var webpack = require("webpack");
  
  module.exports = {
    entry: "./src/index.js",
    output: {
      path: "dist/assets",
      filename: "bundle.js",
      publicPath: "assets"
    },
    devServer: {
      inline: true,
      contentBase: "./dist",
      port: 3000
    },
    module: {
      loaders: [
        {
          test: /\.js$/,
          exclude: /(node_modules)/,
          loader: "babel-loader",
          query: {
            presets: ["latest", "stage-0", "react"]
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>package.json</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>{
    "name": "react-essential",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "description": "A project focusing on React and related tools",
    "main": "index.js",
    "scripts": {
      "start": "httpster -d ./dist -p 3000"
    },
    "author": "Indu Pillai",
    "license": "MIT",
    "devDependencies": {
      "babel-cli": "^6.18.0",
      "babel-loader": "^6.4.1",
      "babel-preset-latest": "^6.16.0",
      "babel-preset-react": "^6.16.0",
      "babel-preset-stage-0": "^6.16.0",
      "webpack": "^2.3.2",
      "webpack-dev-server": "^2.4.2"
    }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I repeated the steps again and again, but it's not working. I'm pretty new to this webpack thing, so I'm not able to find out what the problem really is, and what kind of absolute path it requires. I also tried an absolute path suggested by some answer to another (similar) question, but that didn't work.</p>
  
  <p>Thank you!</p>