proposal-mounting-client-folder.markdown

This is a proposal to simplify our frontend workflow.

Current setup

1. Work on JS source code in client/ folder.
2. Run gulp watch, which will:

• Compile Angular and Handlebars templates.
• Copy client/**/* to public/client/app/, so source + compiled templates can be served through Rails.

3. No-pipe sets client/app as the baseUrl for RequireJS.
4. Third-party components are installed to public/client/bower_components/ (see bower.json).

• When a new component is installed via bower, add new entry to the application's require.config.js.

  require.config({
    ember: '../bower_components/ember' // The relative path from client/app as per no-pipe
  });

Production mode

1. Run gulp release, which concatenates, uglifies JS source, and writes them to public/client-built/app.
2. No-pipe is configured to serve from client-built/app instead of client/app (when RAILS_ENV=production).

Proposed setup

1. Work on JS source code in client/ folder.
2. Run gulp watch to compile Angular and Handlebars templates.
3. Mount the client/ folder as a public folder instead.
4. No-pipe sets client as the baseUrl for RequireJS.
5. Install third-party components to client/bower_components.

• When new component is installed, add new entry to the application's require.config.js.

  require.config({
    ember: 'bower_components/ember'
  });

Production mode

1. Run gulp release, which concatenates, uglifies JS source, and writes them to public/client.