jbuilder VS importmap-rails

# Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma] gem "puma", "~> 5.0" # Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder] # gem "jbuilder" gem 'rack-cors' gem "devise" gem "jsonapi-serializer" gem 'devise-jwt' gem 'active_model_serializers' gem 'followability' gem 'dotenv-rails', groups: [:development, :test, :production] gem 'sprockets' # Use Redis adapter to run Action Cable in production # gem "redis", "~> 4.0" # Use Kredis to get higher-level data types in Redis [https://github.com/rails/kredis] # gem "kredis" # Use Active Model has_secure_password [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_model_basics.html#securepassword] # gem "bcrypt", "~> 3.1.7" # Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ] # Reduces boot times through caching; required in config/boot.rb gem "bootsnap", require: false # Use Active Storage variants [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_storage_overview.html#transforming-images] # gem "image_processing", "~> 1.2" # Use Rack CORS for handling Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), making cross-origin AJAX possible # gem "rack-cors" group :development, :test do # See https://guides.rubyonrails.org/debugging_rails_applications.html#debugging-with-the-debug-gem gem "debug", platforms: %i[ mri mingw x64_mingw ] end group :development do gem "sqlite3", "~> 1.4" # Speed up commands on slow machines / big apps [https://github.com/rails/spring] # gem "spring" end group :production do gem 'pg' end

source "https://rubygems.org" git_source(:github) { |repo| "https://github.com/#{repo}.git" } ruby "3.1.0" # Bundle edge Rails instead: gem "rails", github: "rails/rails", branch: "main" gem "rails", "~> 7.0.4", ">= 7.0.4.2" # The original asset pipeline for Rails [https://github.com/rails/sprockets-rails] gem "sprockets-rails" # Use sqlite3 as the database for Active Record gem "sqlite3", "~> 1.4" # Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma] gem "puma", "~> 5.0" # Use JavaScript with ESM import maps [https://github.com/rails/importmap-rails] gem "importmap-rails" # Hotwire's SPA-like page accelerator [https://turbo.hotwired.dev] gem "turbo-rails" # Hotwire's modest JavaScript framework [https://stimulus.hotwired.dev] gem "stimulus-rails" # Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder] gem "jbuilder" gem "mongoid" gem "mongoid-grid_fs" gem 'bootstrap', '~> 5.2.2' #sourced from https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap-rubygem gem 'rack-cors' # Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ] # Reduces boot times through caching; required in config/boot.rb gem "bootsnap", require: false

For the longest time Rails was also incredibly slow at generating JSON, of all things. JBuilder [1] was a few orders of magnitude slower than using .to_json directly or other libraries.

[1] https://github.com/rails/jbuilder, maintained by DHH and the Rails team. AFAIR, the "official" JSON serialization DSL.

It's a builder DSL for protobuf messages, similar to jbuilder. If you ever used jbuilder, this would be really familiar, but there are small nuances of protobuf to be aware off :)

# Bundle edge Rails instead: gem "rails", github: "rails/rails", branch: "main" gem "rails", "~> 7.0.4" # The original asset pipeline for Rails [https://github.com/rails/sprockets-rails] gem "sprockets-rails" # Use sqlite3 as the database for Active Record gem "sqlite3", "~> 1.4" # Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma] gem "puma", "~> 5.0" # Use JavaScript with ESM import maps [https://github.com/rails/importmap-rails] gem "importmap-rails" # Hotwire's SPA-like page accelerator [https://turbo.hotwired.dev] gem "turbo-rails" # Hotwire's modest JavaScript framework [https://stimulus.hotwired.dev] gem "stimulus-rails" # Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder] gem "jbuilder" # Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ] # Reduces boot times through caching; required in config/boot.rb gem "bootsnap", require: false # Use Sass to process CSS # gem "sassc-rails" # Use Active Storage variants [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_storage_overview.html#transforming-images] # gem "image_processing", "~> 1.2" group :development, :test do # See https://guides.rubyonrails.org/debugging_rails_applications.html#debugging-with-the-debug-gem gem "debug", platforms: %i[ mri mingw x64_mingw ] end group :development do # Use console on exceptions pages [https://github.com/rails/web-console] gem "web-console" # Add speed badges [https://github.com/MiniProfiler/rack-mini-profiler] # gem "rack-mini-profiler" # Speed up commands on slow machines / big apps [https://github.com/rails/spring] # gem "spring" end group :test do # Use system testing [https://guides.rubyonrails.org/testing.html#system-testing] gem "capybara" gem "selenium-webdriver" gem "webdrivers" end

Ohh I see. The magic happens on that format method. If that becomes a pain to maintain, consider checking jbuilder out.

Try to include ActionView::Rendering in your controller. I had this problem with jbuilder and it was the workaround https://github.com/rails/jbuilder/issues/346

Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder]

jbuilder

gem "rails", "~> 7.0.0" # The original asset pipeline for Rails [https://github.com/rails/sprockets-rails] gem "sprockets-rails" # Use postgresql as the database for Active Record gem "pg", "~> 1.1" # Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma] gem "puma", "~> 5.0" # Use JavaScript with ESM import maps [https://github.com/rails/importmap-rails] gem "importmap-rails" # Hotwire's SPA-like page accelerator [https://turbo.hotwired.dev] gem "turbo-rails" # Hotwire's modest JavaScript framework [https://stimulus.hotwired.dev] gem "stimulus-rails" # Use Tailwind CSS [https://github.com/rails/tailwindcss-rails] gem "tailwindcss-rails" # Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder] gem "jbuilder" gem "redis", "~> 4.0"

It is implemented as a thor task in lib/importmap/cmmands.rb

With importmaps (https://github.com/rails/importmap-rails) and Hotwire (https://hotwired.dev/), you write plain js and serve it.

Also packages are served via CDN. There is no tree shaking. Rails got rid of the whole bundling step.

Importmap audit - “checks the NPM registry for known security issues”

It worked, but JS changes were not coming through. Digging into the Importmap docs (see 'sweeping the cache', it monitors changes according to the setting config.importmap.cache_sweepers. So, by adding the locations where I have my JS files, I also got JS changes passed through.

You can't use TypeScript, or anything that requires pre-compile, with importmap. answered issue

Let's begin by installing the necessary dependencies. The first gem generates the importmap object, manages caching, and helps with library installations, among other things. I recommend reading the entire readme to become familiar with its capabilities. The second gem will be discussed later, it is used to compile JSX files. Gemfile

Yeah, those were brand new right around the time I started this project a few years ago with Rails 7 (or was it 6.1?). I actually ended up removing them in favor of importmap-rails since I wanted as simple of a frontend as possible and I wasn't sure of relying on what was, at the time, a brand new way of doing frontend work. Things change so quickly in JS-land that I'm always hesitant to make something a dependency unless it has a strong track record of being continuously maintained.

source "https://rubygems.org" git_source(:github) { |repo| "https://github.com/#{repo}.git" } ruby "3.1.0" # Bundle edge Rails instead: gem "rails", github: "rails/rails", branch: "main" gem "rails", "~> 7.0.4", ">= 7.0.4.2" # The original asset pipeline for Rails [https://github.com/rails/sprockets-rails] gem "sprockets-rails" # Use sqlite3 as the database for Active Record gem "sqlite3", "~> 1.4" # Use the Puma web server [https://github.com/puma/puma] gem "puma", "~> 5.0" # Use JavaScript with ESM import maps [https://github.com/rails/importmap-rails] gem "importmap-rails" # Hotwire's SPA-like page accelerator [https://turbo.hotwired.dev] gem "turbo-rails" # Hotwire's modest JavaScript framework [https://stimulus.hotwired.dev] gem "stimulus-rails" # Build JSON APIs with ease [https://github.com/rails/jbuilder] gem "jbuilder" gem "mongoid" gem "mongoid-grid_fs" gem 'bootstrap', '~> 5.2.2' #sourced from https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap-rubygem gem 'rack-cors' # Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem gem "tzinfo-data", platforms: %i[ mingw mswin x64_mingw jruby ] # Reduces boot times through caching; required in config/boot.rb gem "bootsnap", require: false

Also, installing StimulusReflex seems quite not easy for the moment: It seems there are some quirks along the way if you're using import-maps for managing javascript dependencies as I do. Embracing the Rails way at least prevents you from this sort of issue.