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Webpacker 6: Tutorial Setup

Andrew Mason

Published Dec 23rd, 2020

Before we start the upgrade process for Webpacker 6, we are going to create a small demo application for us to work on.

If you are upgrading an existing app or not using this series as a tutorial, you can skip this step! We will begin the formal upgrade process in the next article.

Generate a new Rails app

First we will generate new Ruby on Rails app:

rails new webpacker_6 --skip-sprockets --skip-spring --skip-webpack-install --skip-bundle
cd webpacker_6

--skip-sprockets: Skip Sprockets files
--skip-spring: Don’t install Spring application preloader
--skip-bundle: Don’t run bundle install
--skip-webpack-install: Don’t run Webpack install

Setup the Database

bin/rails db:prepare

Turn off asset scaffolding

Prevent Rails from creating asset files when running the generators and scaffolds:

# config/application.rb

# ...
module Webpacker6
  class Application < Rails::Application
    config.load_defaults 6.1
+    config.generators do |g|
+      g.assets false
+    end
  end
end

Add Pages Controller

Generate pages controller with a home action:

bin/rails g controller pages home

Add Root Route

Set pages#home as the root route:

# config/routes.rb

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  get 'pages/home'
+  root to: 'pages#home'
  # For details on the DSL available within this file, see https://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html
end

Note: Because we skipped the Webpacker install task, you will get an error if you try to start the application as is. We will fix that in the next article.

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