Build Production Command ignores WEBPACKER_PRECOMPILE=false

[elstgav]

Webpacker allows you to skip compilation in the assets:precompile task if WEBPACKER_PRECOMPILE is set to false (rails/webpacker#1023). However, React on Rails will still run build_production_command.

Right now, we can manually workaround this like so:

ReactOnRails.configure do |config|
  # Copied from https://github.com/rails/webpacker/blob/7ed1c08e79c17680636fa99e6bb095ec1fbc8008/lib/tasks/webpacker/compile.rake#L36-L37
  skip_webpacker_precompile = %w[no false n f].include?(ENV["WEBPACKER_PRECOMPILE"])

  # This configures the script to run to build the production assets by webpack. Set this to nil
  # if you don't want react_on_rails building this file for you.
  unless skip_webpacker_precompile
    config.build_production_command = "RAILS_ENV=production bin/webpack"
  end
end

But it would be great if React on Rails natively supported this for feature parity 👍🏻

[justin808]

@elstgav Great idea!

However, should we use the same ENV name of WEBPACKER_PRECOMPILE as there is no webpack precompile running. Instead, it's a custom command.

In terms of a fix, we can put these lines right at https://github.com/shakacode/react_on_rails/blob/master/lib/tasks/assets.rake#L10

# Compile packs after we've compiled all other assets during precompilation
skip_webpacker_precompile = %w(no false n f).include?(ENV["WEBPACKER_PRECOMPILE"])

unless skip_webpacker_precompile

@elstgav let me know if you want to create a PR or my team can do it.

[elstgav]

Perhaps react on rails should have a similar ENV variable of its own, e.g. REACT_ON_RAILS_PRECOMPILE=false 🤔