GitHub repo: giannisp/rails-react-boilerplate

This is a pure Ruby on Rails / React / Redux / Webpack 2 boilerplate app that I have built and open-sourced. Highlights include using the newly released Webpack 2, as well as making the frontend part independent of the Asset Pipeline.

Features

• Ruby on Rails 5.x
• React 15.4.x
• Webpack 2.x
• Babel 6.x
• ESLint support
• SASS and StyleLint support
• Hashed filenames for production assets
• Separate app and vendor JS bundles
• Postgres compatibility
• Using Rails default gems and NPM packages only

Exit Asset Pipeline, Enter Webpack

Why Webpack?

Webpack is a module bundler. It can bundle all JS files for usage in the browser, but can also transform / bundle / package any resource or frontend asset.

JavaScript community moves forward at a rapid pace, new frameworks and modules are being released every day. The NPM ecosystem is huge, and Webpack makes it available in the simplest way possible.

Webpack can support every modern JS app, using ES6 or CommonJS modules, or both, create a single or multiple bundles, and in general can be customized to accomplish any application requirement.

The frontend assets on this app are placed on a more accessible directory, at /front/js and front/css, rather than app/assets/javascripts and app/assets/stylesheets.

At any point, migration to a different backend (for example NodeJS) can be seamless since Webpack is running as a stand-alone bundler. There's absolutely no dependence to the Asset Pipeline or any other framework-specific module.