How to configure Rails 3 for JavaScript development

Question

I'm moving an app from Rails 2 to Rails 3. I have a bunch of JavaScript files in the app, most of which are for working with Google Maps. Previously, my JS files were in public/javascripts/*.js. I noticed that they were not being loaded by any of the pages that used javascript_include_tag, which writes a JavaScript tag that tries to load the JS file from /assets/*.js. (e.g. /assets/application.js).

I read that Rails 3 expects JS files to be located in app/assets/javascripts/*.js. So I moved my JS files there, but they still won't be accessible at /assets/application.js, unless I run bundle exec rake assets:precompile first.

I can't have my JS development cycle be:

Make change to JS
Run bundle exec rake assets:precompile
Reload browser

Thats just too long. My question is how can I configure my app so that the development cycle is as follows?

Make change to JS
Reload browser

So far I've tried:

Enabling the line that reads "Bundler.require(:default, :assets, Rails.env)" in config/application.rb
Setting config.assets.enabled = false (and true) in config/application.rb

Thanks in advance.

Just trying to eliminate things here - do you have <%= javascript_include_tag "application" %> in your layout? — Jeff Steil
– Jeff Steil, Commented Nov 8, 2012 at 14:19

44maagnum · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-08 01:44:31Z

1

The Rails asset pipeline should be used with a manifest file. This allows Rails to concatenate all of your javascript when in production. In order to do this, you should have an application.js file that looks something like.

//= require jquery
//= require jquery_ujs
//= require_tree .

The important part here is the require_tree part. This tells Rails to include all of the other javascript files in the same folder. This means that you want both the manifest version of application.js and all of your custom javascript files to live in app/assets/javascripts.

A good guide for transitioning to the asset pipeline from Rails 2 can be found in this RailsCast: http://railscasts.com/episodes/282-upgrading-to-rails-3-1

answered Nov 8, 2012 at 1:44

44maagnum

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1 Comment

antun Over a year ago

I do have those lines in my application.js. But that still doesn't let me modify a JS file and see the result immediately after refreshing the browser. Also, note at this stage, I'm only in development not in production.

张华轩 · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-19 07:22:24Z

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recently i have this issues

I change file config/environments/development.rb config.assets.digest = false then that working

answered Jul 19, 2016 at 7:22

张华轩

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