Build script

[jasoncharnes]

The default setup works great, even for React and JSX! That said, I think having the default build script mentioned in #1 would be a huge boost.

I've attempted to add a build script during the install process. To be clear, here- I'm very new to esbuild, so if there is a better way to do any of the things here I'm glad to change it!

• Adds a build script: app/assets/config/esbuild.js
• Changes the package.json build command to use the new script
  • I'm using the node command here, but it might be better as an executable. If someone could help me know what permissions to use for the executable I'd be glad to make that happen.
• Turns on "watch" mode if --watch is one of the arguments passed to the build script
  • I lost the output when a build happens using watch mode, so I used the onRebuild function mentioned in the esbuild docs
  • I'm not overly enthusiastic about the overhead of reading the arguments and defining this function, but I do think having some type of feedback when a build occurs is valuable

[t27duck]

Should this be outdir: "app'assets/esbuilds" instead? That would allow multiple entryPoints out of the box.

Example:

entryPoints: ["app/javascript/application.js", "app/javascript/admin.js"],
outdir: "app/assets/esbuilds"

[czj]

It would also prevents typos and follow naming conventions.

[dhh]

const watch = process.argv.includes("--watch") && {
   onRebuild(error) {
     if (error) console.error("[watch] build failed", error);
     else console.log("[watch] build finished");
   },
 };

This was the reason I backed off including this by default. It already smells like mini Webpacker 😂. I know it isn't, but I'm not a big fan of having actual code in here by default. Code that can go out of style and date easily.

I'd probably rather just link to somewhere that explains how to do this, and then stick with the command line for now.

[czj]

As I understand, to use Stimulus with esbuild — which I think is a common use case for Rails users — you need to use an import plugin like https://github.com/zombiezen/esbuild-plugin-stimulus and plugins only run via a build script, not the (much simpler and faster) esbuild command.

Could this repository's README be a good place to store information regarding esbuild build scripts then ? Or https://github.com/hotwired/stimulus-rails ?

[dhh]

czj, you don't have to use that. You can also just manually import and register your controllers. I'm working on a generated answer for that so we don't have to rely on a esbuild plugin.

[czj]

That’s really great news then, thanks a lot. Manually registering controllers works but it is (very) tedious with tens of controllers.