Asset compilation/minification

DavidSklar

Any for-novices documentation re: development of extensions needs to talk about asset compilation.

For example, when changing .less or .js files in an extension's workbench-resident directory, you can force the Flarum engine to exhibit the changes (i.e. "recompile the assets") by deleting the flarum installation's assets directory's .css and .js files. That is not intuitive and really needs to be present in documentation re: how to iteratively develop or repair/improve/customize any extension.

luceos

DavidSklar if you have debug set to true in your config.php asset compilation is skipped, eg assets will be regenerated on every hit. Also what you missed is the rev-manifest.json file in assets. These should all be cleared using the php flarum cache:clear command, although the rev-manifest is currently not removed.

DavidSklar

@luceos How can I tell the flarum repo's asset compilation process to NOT minify during development?
E.g. when I'm working on an extension, my compilation process from ES6 to JS produces non-minified JS code, so I feel pretty sure it's the final asset compilation process in the flarum repo that is doing the minification. Any tips about how to disable that during devel?

DavidSklar

DavidSklar Or rather, in the core repo. That is where minification is being performed, but I don't know how to disable it "safely". What is the protocol for doing so? @luceos

luceos

DavidSklar if I'm not mistaken you can't. Minification is part of how core processes the assets. Unless of course you hack/edit/override core.

My statement also is incorrect, with debug on asset compilation happens on every single visit. I've taken another look at the logic here. Watch has the value of config.php > debug. So minification and caching of JS files only happens in case debug is off.

What are you running into?