Manual Installation Overview

TODO: Review this file

This file summarizes what the React on Rails generator does.

Configure the /client Directory

This directory has no references to Rails outside of the destination directory for the files created by the various Webpack config files.

The only requirements within this directory for basic React on Rails integration are:

1. Your webpack configuration files:
   1. Create outputs in a directory like /public/webpack, which is customizable in your config/initializers/react_on_rails.rb.
   2. Provide server rendering if you wish to use that feature.
2. Your JavaScript code "registers" any components and stores per the ReactOnRails APIs of ReactOnRails.register(components) and ReactOnRails.registerStore(stores). See our javascript API docs and the ReactOnRails.js source.
3. Set your registration file as an "entry" point in your Webpack configs.
4. Add the Manifest plugin to your config. The default path: public/webpack can be loaded with webpackConfigLoader as shown in the dummy example.
5. You create scripts in client/package.json per the example apps. These are used for building your Webpack assets. Also do this for your top level package.json.

Rails Steps (outside of /client)

1. Add gem "webpacker" to the Gemfile, run bundle. The gem provides the stylesheet_pack_tag and javascript_pack_tag helpers which is used to load the bundled assets to your layouts.Dummy Example
2. Configure the config/initializers/react_on_rails.rb. You can adjust some necessary settings and defaults. See file https://github.com/shakacode/react_on_rails/tree/master/spec/dummy/config/initializers/react_on_rails.rb for a detailed example of configuration, including comments on the different values to configure.
3. Configure your Procfiles per the example apps. These are at the root of your Rails installation.
4. Configure your top level JavaScript files for inclusion in your layout. You'll want a version that you use for static assets, and you want a file for any files in your setup that are not part of your webpack build. The reason for this is for use with hot-reloading. If you are not using hot reloading, then you only need to configure your application.js file to include your Webpack generated files.
5. If you are deploying to Heroku, see our heroku deployment documentation

If I missed anything, please submit a PR or file an issue.