The default path without Node is dramatically simpler, surprisingly capable, and skating to where the puck of future front-end development is likely to go anyway. These are the best default choices we’ve ever had for front-end development in Rails. (And exclusively for Tailwind, we even have a version that works without the Node dependency as well!) If you’re willing to accept the complexity of a Node dependency, you can pre-configure your new Rails app to use any of them with -css bootstrap and it’ll use cssbundling-rails. From Tailwind CSS to Bootstrap, from Dart-powered Sass to PostCSS. With Rails 7, all they need to be able to produce is a compiled application.css file, and they’ll integrate perfectly. The same approach is taken with CSS bundlers that rely on Node. Whether you like esbuild (and who doesn’t these days!) or rollup.js or even Webpack, you’ll be able to use any of them through the new jsbundling-rails integration that can be pre-configured for new apps with -javascript esbuild. Gone is the tightly-coupled embrace of Webpack with Webpacker, and instead is a loosely-coupled embrace of any JavaScript bundler you might prefer. While most Rails applications won’t need a dependency on Node given these defaults, we’ve still managed to also dramatically improve the integration story for those who do in Rails 7. It’s the default choice for new Rails apps, replacing the far more limited options of Turbolinks and Rails UJS. Hotwire’s combination of Turbo and Stimulus deliver all the tools needed to produce fantastic user experiences that leave little to nothing on the table in contrast to single-page applications – at a fraction of the complexity. Rails 7 takes advantage of all of these advances to deliver a no-Node default approach to the front end – without sacrificing either access to npm packages or modern JavaScript in the process.

But with advancements in browser support for ES6/ESM, widespread adoption of HTTP/2, and the exciting new standard for import maps, it’s finally possible. We simply didn’t have the core technologies in place. This vision wasn’t possible even just a few years ago. An omakase menu that includes everything from the aperitif to the dessert. It’s the fulfillment of a vision to present a truly full-stack approach to web development that tackles both the front- and back-end challenges with equal vigor. This version of Rails has been years in the conceptual making.

Rubymine 7