Rails 6 + Vue.js 2 Starter Kit GitHub Template.

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 + Bootstrap with AdminLTE theme + Vue + Jest. If your team is considering or has already decided to use Vue, this is the right for you. As an additional review of how to setup PWA, Turbolinks, CSS frameworks, Storybook.

Preview of all steps

Expected Final Screen

Table of Contents

• Step 1. Generate Ruby on Rails Project with Vue.js
• Step 2. Setup development environment
• Step 3. Add sample page to host Vue.js component
• Step 4. Use Webpacker assets in the application
• Step 5. Install Jest for Component Unit Tests
• Step 6. Setup Heroku and Deploy
• Step 7. Setup basic PWA
• Step 8. Setup Turbolinks
• Step 9. Installs UI Kit - AdminLTE
• Step 10. Configure continuous integration and other services for static code analysis

Things you may want to cover:

Features:

• Optimized for peformance Webpacker with Vue.js: Lazy Load, Split Chunks
• Turbolinks
• PWA
• Backend Unit and System Tests with coverage
• Vue.js Unit Tests with coverage
• Deployable to Heroku
• Pre-setup for services:
  • GitHub
  • Heroku (Heroku Reviews Apps)
  • CircleCI
  • Codecov and Simplecov
  • Dependabot
• Static Code Analyzers:
  • Pronto
  • Rubocop
  • ESLint
  • EditorConfig

Dependencies:

• Ruby on Rails version 6
• Vue.js version 2 with Vue Test Utils
• Webpacker 5 with Webpack 4
• Bootstrap 4 with AdminLTE Template
• Babel 7

System Dependencies:

• Ruby 3.0
• Node.js 14
• Yarn
• PostgreSQL 12
• Heroku CLI

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

This generates Rails project with:

• Vue component in app/javascript/app.vue
• Example entry file app/javascript/packs/hello_vue.js

Setup development environment:

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

2. Install dependencies:

bin/setup

3. Enable content_security_policy in the config/initializers/content_security_policy.rb with the following configuration:

Rails.application.config.content_security_policy do |policy|
  policy.script_src :self, :https

  if Rails.env.development? || Rails.env.test?
    policy.connect_src :self, :https, 'http://localhost:3035', 'ws://localhost:3035'
  end
end

4. Verify that we have not broken anything

bin/webpack
bin/rails runner "exit"

Add sample page to host Vue.js component

1. Generate controller and view:

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

2. Update app/views/landing/index.html.erb to:

<h1>Landing#index</h1>
<p>Find me in app/views/landing/index.html.erb</p>

<div id='hello_vue_app'></div>

3. Change app/javascript/packs/hello_vue.js to:

import Vue from 'vue'
import App from '../app.vue'

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
  const app = new Vue({
    render: h => h(App),
    el: '#hello_vue_app'
  }).$mount()
})

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

  root 'landing#index'

Use Webpacker assets in the application

1. Enable Webpacker with SplitChunks:

   • Enable SplitChunks with default config by adding to config/webpack/environment.js:

     environment.splitChunks()

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

     Change:

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

     to:

     <%= stylesheet_packs_with_chunks_tag 'application', 'hello_vue', media: 'all' %>
     <%= javascript_packs_with_chunks_tag 'application', 'hello_vue' %>

2. Verify locally that vue.js is working and SplitChunks is enabled

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

Expect to see

The javascript_packs_with_chunks_tag and stylesheet_packs_with_chunks_tag helpers split assets into small size chunks and create html tags for them:

<script src="/packs/js/runtime~hello_vue-818eba5af0151079cb6c.js"></script>
<script src="/packs/js/1-7b962b4481d6abff6c2b.chunk.js"></script>
<script src="/packs/js/hello_vue-bc0218ac204eff3ff742.chunk.js"></script>

Install Jest for Component Unit Tests

1. Add Jest with required dependencies

yarn add --dev jest @vue/test-utils vue-jest babel-core@^7.0.0-bridge.0 babel-jest jest-serializer-vue

2. Configure Jest in package.json (including the Coverage enabling):

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

3. Add test/javascript/test.test.js:

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

4. Verify installation

yarn test

Expect to see

6. 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.vm).toBeTruthy()
  })

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

7. Verify by

yarn test

You should see all tests passed

Setup Heroku and Deploy

1. Confirm compilation is working:

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

2. Create a 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 addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev

heroku buildpacks:add heroku/ruby

heroku config:set RAILS_ENV=production NODE_ENV=production YARN_PRODUCTION=true MALLOC_ARENA_MAX=2

3. Setup Node.js for Heroku

heroku buildpacks:add --index 1 heroku/nodejs

Use the engines section of the package.json to specify the version of Node.js to use on Heroku. Drop the ‘v’ to save only the version number:

{
  "engines": {
    "node": ">= 12.x"
  }
}

4. Deploy and verify that vue.js is working on Heroku

git push heroku master

heroku apps:open

Setup basic PWA

1. Install serviceworker-rails by adding into Gemfile:

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

2. Following the guide: https://github.com/rossta/serviceworker-rails you should get something like: https://gist.github.com/pftg/786b147eff85a6fc98bd8dc1c3c9778e

3. There'll be an issue with service worker registration on the page saying: Uncaught ReferenceError: window is not defined and Failed to register a ServiceWorker.... To fix that add following line to config/webpack/environment.js as suggested here:

environment.config.set('output.globalObject', 'this')

Setup Turbolinks

1. Add node dependencies

yarn add vue-turbolinks turbolinks

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

import Turbolinks from 'turbolinks'
Turbolinks.start()

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

import 'initializers/turbolinks.js'

4. Change app/javascript/packs/hello_vue.js to:

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

Vue.use(TurbolinksAdapter)

document.addEventListener('turbolinks:load', () => {
  const app = new Vue({
    render: h => h(App),
    el: '#hello_vue_app'
  }).$mount()
})

5. Update layout app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:

<%= javascript_packs_with_chunks_tag 'hello_vue', 'application', 'data-turbolinks-track': 'reload' %>

6. Run tests and server to verify:

bin/rails t
bin/rails s

Setup AdminLTE

1. Add node dependencies

yarn add admin-lte bootstrap jquery popover @fortawesome/fontawesome-free

2. Add app/javascript/initializers/adminlte.js initializer:

import '../assets/adminlte.scss'
import('./plugins') // () needed for async loading

3. Add app/javascript/initializers/plugins.js file with plugin importing:

import '@fortawesome/fontawesome-free'
import 'jquery/src/jquery.js'
import 'popper.js'
import 'bootstrap'
import 'admin-lte/build/js/AdminLTE'

4. Import admin lte initializer in app/javascript/packs/application.js pack:

import 'initializers/adminlte'

5. Next step is updating main layout app/views/layouts/application.html.erb. Code for layout you can find here. Also don't forget to add yield in div with content class:

<div class="content">
    <%= yield %>
</div>

6. Add styles to app/javascript/assets/adminlte.scss:

$fa-font-path: '~@fortawesome/fontawesome-free/webfonts';

@import '~@fortawesome/fontawesome-free/scss/fontawesome';
@import '~@fortawesome/fontawesome-free/scss/solid';
@import '~@fortawesome/fontawesome-free/scss/regular';
@import '~@fortawesome/fontawesome-free/scss/brands';

@import "~admin-lte/build/scss/adminlte";

7. Run tests and server to verify:

yarn test
bin/rails test
bin/rails test:system
bin/rails s

Expect to see:

Configure continuous integration and other services for static code analysis.

To be able to automatically analyze the quality of the code, let's install the jt_tools gem.

1. Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'jt_tools', groups: [:development]

2. Next step is running bundle install and generator:

bin/bundle
bin/rails jt_tools:install

3. Run linters to verify

bin/lint-pr

You should see a list of the linters that were running.