Setting up Rails 6 with PWA, Turbolinks, Webpack(er) 4, Babel 7, Vue.js 2 and Jest.

NOTE: For Rails 5.2 please check https://github.com/jetthoughts/vuejs-rails-starterkit/tree/rails-5-latest

A quick and easy way to setup Rails + PWA + Turbolinks + Webpacker + Vue + Jest. If your team is considering, or has already decided, to use Vue, this is the right for you. As extra review how to setup PWA, Turbolinks, CSS frameworks, Storybook.

Things you may want to cover:

Ruby version: 2.7.0
System dependencies: Node.js, Yarn, PostgreSQL, Heroku CLI
Key Dependencies: Ruby on Rails version 6, Vue.js version 2, Webpacker with Webpack 4 and Babel 7

Generate Ruby on Rails Project with Vue.js (No Turbolinks included on this stage)

gem install rails

rails new vuejs-rails-starterkit --force --database=postgresql \
  --skip-action-mailer --skip-action-cable --skip-sprockets --skip-turbolinks \
  --webpack=vue

cd ./vuejs-rails-starterkit

bin/rails db:create db:migrate

Setup development environment:

Uncomment system('bin/yarn') in bin/setup and bin/update to install new node modules.
Install dependencies:

bin/setup

Enable unsafe-eval rule to support runtime-only build and webpacker-dev-server

This can be done in the config/initializers/content_security_policy.rb with the following configuration:

Rails.application.config.content_security_policy do |policy|
  if Rails.env.development?
    policy.script_src :self, :https, :unsafe_eval

    policy.connect_src :self, :https, 'http://localhost:3035', 'ws://localhost:3035'
  else
    policy.script_src :self, :https
  end
end

You can learn more about this from: Vue.js Docs and Webpacker/Vue Docs.

Verify that we have not broken anything

bin/webpack
bin/rails runner "exit"

Use Webpacker assets in the application

Enable Webpacker by updating app/views/layout/application.html.erb:

Add after:

    <%= stylesheet_link_tag 'application', media: 'all' %>
    <%= javascript_pack_tag 'application' %>

inlcude of vue example:

    <%= stylesheet_pack_tag 'hello_vue', media: 'all' %>
    <%= javascript_pack_tag 'hello_vue' %>

Add sample page to host Vue.js component:

bin/rails generate controller Landing index --no-javascripts --no-stylesheets --no-helper --no-assets --no-fixture

Setup sample page as home page by updating config/routes.rb:

  root 'landing#index'

Verify locally that vue.js working

bin/rails s
open "http://localhost:3000/"

Expect to see

Install Jest for Component Unit Tests

Add Jest

yarn add --dev jest vue-jest babel-jest @vue/test-utils jest-serializer-vue 'babel-core@^7.0.0-bridge' @babel/core

Add to package.json:

  "scripts": {
    "test": "jest"
  },
  "jest": {
    "verbose": true,
    "testURL": "http://localhost/",
    "roots": [
      "test/javascript"
    ],
    "moduleDirectories": [
      "node_modules",
      "app/javascript"
    ],
    "moduleNameMapper": {
      "^@/(.*)$": "app/javascript/$1"
    },
    "moduleFileExtensions": [
      "js",
      "json",
      "vue"
    ],
    "transform": {
      "^.+\\.js$": "<rootDir>/node_modules/babel-jest",
      ".*\\.(vue)$": "<rootDir>/node_modules/vue-jest"
    },
    "snapshotSerializers": [
      "<rootDir>/node_modules/jest-serializer-vue"
    ]
  },

Add test/javascript/test.test.js:

test('there is no I in team', () => {
  expect('team').not.toMatch(/I/);
});

Verify installation

yarn test

You should found

Add component test for App in test/javascript/app.test.js:

import { mount, shallowMount } from '@vue/test-utils'
import App from 'app';

describe('App', () => {
  test('is a Vue instance', () => {
    const wrapper = mount(App)
    expect(wrapper.isVueInstance()).toBeTruthy()
  })

  test('matches snapshot', () => {
    const wrapper = shallowMount(App)
    expect(wrapper.html()).toMatchSnapshot()
  })
});

Verify by

yarn test

You should see all tests passed

Setup Heroku and Deploy

Confirm compilation is working:

RAILS_ENV=production \
NODE_ENV=production \
RAILS_SERVE_STATIC_FILES=true \
SECRET_KEY_BASE="7aa51097e982f34be02abe83528c3308768dff3837b405e0907028c750d22d067367fb79e2b223e3f223fea50ddf2d5dc9b3c933cf5bc8c7f2a3d3d75f73c4a7" \
bin/rails assets:precompile

Create Heroku App and provision it

Requirements: Heroku CLI.

NOTE: Do not forget to commit all your changes: git add . && git commit -m "Generates Ruby on Rails application with Vue.js onboard"

heroku create

heroku buildpacks:add heroku/ruby

heroku config:set RAILS_ENV=production NODE_ENV=production

Deploy and verify that vue.js working on Heroku

git push heroku master

heroku apps:open

Setup basic PWA

Install serviceworker-rails by adding into Gemfile:

gem 'serviceworker-rails', github: 'rossta/serviceworker-rails'

By following guide: https://github.com/rossta/serviceworker-rails should get something to: https://gist.github.com/pftg/786b147eff85a6fc98bd8dc1c3c9778e

Setup Turbolinks

Add node dependencies

yarn add vue-turbolinks turbolinks
yarn install

Load Turbolinks by adding app/javascript/initializers/turbolinks.js:

import Turbolinks from 'turbolinks'
Turbolinks.start()

Add to app/javascript/packs/application.js:

import 'initializers/turbolinks.js'

Uncomment in hello_vue.js:

import TurbolinksAdapter from 'vue-turbolinks'
import Vue from 'vue/dist/vue.esm'
import App from '../app.vue'

Vue.use(TurbolinksAdapter)

document.addEventListener('turbolinks:load', () => {
  const app = new Vue({
    el: '#hello',
    data: () => {
      return {
        message: "Can you say hello?"
      }
    },
    components: { App }
  })
})

Update layout with:

<div id="hello"></div>

Run tests and server to verify:

bin/rails t
bin/rails s

pftg/vuejs-adminlte-rails-starterkit