CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-rails-3jquery-pluginsruby-on-rails-3.2asset-pipeline
RubyRedGrapefruit
RubyRedGrapefruit

Reputation: 12224

Is there a "Rails Way" include a jQuery plugin in the Asset Pipeline?

Many jQuery plugins have the following directory structures:

/<plugin name>
../css
../images
../js

The CSS files usually have relative links to the images in them. What I want to do is include these plugins in the Rails Way under the Asset Pipeline, and hopefully that doesn't involve having to renamed the file references to remove the relative links. Is there such a Rails Way?

Could it also be that it's overkill to include an already-minified jQuery plugin in the Asset Pipeline?

Upvotes: 10

Views: 2501

Answers (3)

Max
Max

Reputation: 6811

I had the same issue and also tried to find "the Rails way" to do this. And this is what I ended up with at the end of the day:

As Rob already mentioned:

vendor/assets is for assets that are owned by outside entities, such as code for JavaScript plugins and CSS frameworks.

Source: 2.1 Asset Organization

Lets take a practical example: using the jquery_datepicker gem (Note: we had to use a workaround because of this issue: bundle pack does not work with git sources).

1) Installing the gem (pretty straighforward):

cd vendor/gems
git clone https://github.com/albertopq/jquery_datepicker.git

2) Add this to your Gemfile

gem 'jquery_datepicker', :path => 'vendor/gems/jquery_datepicker'

3) Install a jquery-ui theme

  • From ThemeRoller select a theme, check Datepicker and Slider and the jQUery version
  • Download and extract the content of the package
  • CSS/images from the css/theme-name folder move them:
    • jquery-ui-1.8.xx.custom.css to app/vendor/stylesheets/
    • the images folder to app/vendor/images/ (yes, move the entire folder images so you end up with something like this app/vendor/images/images/ui-icons_256x240.png
  • i18n from the development-bundle/ui/i18n folder (optional) move them to:
    • Create a folder i18n under app/vendor/javascripts/
    • move jquery.ui.datepicker-xx.js to this folder app/vendor/javascripts/i18n/
    • make sure the i18n folder is loaded so include in application.js
//= require_directory ./i18n

vendor/assets is loaded automatically AFAIK so you don't have to include the path in the asset pipeline.

I'd like to see how others are approaching this, it's a very good question.

Upvotes: 2

Rob
Rob

Reputation: 109

You should try to add your assets to the load path which is the recommended way, as far as I know. If the application you're running has the assets-pipeline activated, it should find your assets after expanding the path in your application.rb

config.assets.paths << Rails.root.join("plugins/plugin_name/assets/")

Not shure, if this is what you asked for but if not, you should check: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/asset_pipeline.html#asset-organization

Remeber to restart your server

Upvotes: 2

Catfish
Catfish

Reputation: 19314

I think the reason you haven't received an answer is because it's kind of unclear what you're asking. Are you asking if it's overkill to put your plugins in the asset pipeline? Are you asking if you have to rename file references?

I always put all my jquery plugins in my asset pipeline. Overkill or not, there all in one place and they only get compiled once so even if compiling them takes longer, it doesn't affect my app.

Upvotes: 1

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