Webpacker integration in AlchemyCMS

[afdev82]

Hi,

I'm currently trying to update / switch from webpacker v5 to shakapacker, its successor.
Because Webpacker is retired and it will not be the default anymore for Rails 7, I think it's time to think how AlchemyCMS should react.

BTW I'm facing a small problem, because since the v6 of webpacker/shakapacker doesn't allow nested directories in the source_entry_path anymore as explained here, the line that imports the pack inside the alchemy admin layout should be changed to something like:

<%= javascript_pack_tag('alchemy_admin') %>

Anyway, this discussion is more general, because Rails is moving away from Webpacker and I think AlchemyCMS should be more "agnostic" about that.

[tvdeyen]

We will most likely remove our dependency to webpacker for the host app and let users decide how to bundle and build the alchemy admin package.

[afdev82]

Yes,
I think this is a good idea.
Let me know if I can help in some way to get it done!

Maybe it could be wise to extract the inclusion of the assets (both js and css) in a partial.
In this way the user could overwrite only the partial in his app and change the way to include them.
At the moment the only way to change that is to override the full admin layout.

[ZmagoD]

hi @tvdeyen
we have a similar issue with webpacker dependency here. Do you need some help changing this?

[pascalbetz]

Happy top help as well.
This currently blocks us from upgrading to esbuild / deprecating webpacker in our app.
Is there a way to support both more or less out of the box?

[tvdeyen]

Latest main (Alchemy v7.0.0-a) has removed webpacker and added support for importmaps as well as jsbundling-rails. Would love to get some feedback. /c @afdev82 @ZmagoD @pascalbetz

[afdev82]

This change assumes that you either use jsbundling-rails or importmaps, right?
Is there support for a custom integration or Shakapacker for example?

[tvdeyen]

The installer/upgrader just checks if there is a importmap.rb file or a package.json file and prints out a warning if neither exists. Since Shakapacker and jsbundling-rails use package.json for dependency management it should just work. A custom solution needs to make sure that the admin bundle is bundled.

[afdev82]

Yes,
I've seen you have changed the name for the bundle like I'm already doing in my fork.
If it works, I could then return upstream, thank you for that change!

[tvdeyen]

Yeah, would like you to test this in your app and report any issues.

[afdev82]

Yes, I will test it asap and let you know.