sprockets VS importmap-rails

Have you noticed that we used JSX syntax? It is not what the browser understands by default. In Rails, the Sprockets gem is responsible for translating from the languages that developers like to write to the languages that the browser can run. However, it doesn't compile JSX by default. You can learn from the Sprockets fascinating readme on how to befriend it with new file types, but for JSX it is already done by the creator of the jass-react-jsx gem. Therefore, there is no reason to write the code again that is already written and working. It uses Babel, a JavaScript library that converts one JavaScript to another. It requires Node.js to run. I can't imagine a case where you have a Rails app installed but Node.js isn't, but the fact that I can't imagine it doesn't mean that it's impossible. So lets add babel to our app: Console

Sprockets actually does define those tasks: https://github.com/rails/sprockets/blob/main/lib/rake/sprocketstask.rb

What an exciting couple of months it has been for the Rails community! Rails 7 was released in December of 2021 and this month we are welcoming Propshaft. David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), the creator of Rails, released a post on Feb. 11 introducing the community to the new and improved asset pipeline for Rails. While Propshaft likely won't be the default until at least Rails 8, it promises a simpler solution to asset management over its predecessor, Sprockets. Sprockets, the current default asset pipeline library, has grown increasingly heavy over the years as it has attempted to shoulder all things related to bundling, minifying, transpiling, and compressing. Enabled by the new era of tech that makes Rails 7 possible, Propshaft is touted as being "absolutely tiny" in comparison and aims to provide the following: a configurable load path for your assets, digest stamping for long-expiry cache and better performance, a development server that removes the need to pre-compile assets, and basic compilers instead of full transpilers. Sprockets will require relatively long-term support and will remain the default for now but fret not! You can create a Rails 7+ app using Propshaft, or upgrade an existing app and start using it now.

after being in beta for 3 years, Sprockets 4 was released, with support for ES6 and source maps in the asset pipeline (2019), to serve people still hesitant with webpack,

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.