How can I completely disable CoffeeScript in a Rails 3.1 app?

Question

At the moment when I generate a new controller, Rails also generates a .js.coffee file for the controller as well. As I don't use CoffeeScript I want Rails instead generate .js files for me.

Is it enough to comment out the coffee-rails gem to completely disable CofeeScript in a Rails 3.1 app?

You can get a list of all coffeescript files with `find . -iname '*.coffee'`. — Kris, Jul 07 '17 at 10:00

score 61 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 04 '12 at 05:27

61

Comment out gem "coffee-script" in your Gemfile
Use .js instead of .js.coffee for your javascript files

answered Jan 04 '12 at 05:27

Gaurav Gupta

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Is this documented somewhere that commenting out the `coffee-script` gem is enough? – K Everest Jan 04 '12 at 14:05
4

Why don't you just try it out? – Gaurav Gupta Jan 05 '12 at 03:53
1

I don't have that line in my Gemfile, but I still needed to install a JS engine in production to compile assets (using Capistrano with the `load 'deploy/assets'` line). Sort of annoying. – Paul A Jungwirth Apr 25 '12 at 21:04
No, removing the gem from your gemfile does NOT work. Keeping your cofeescript outside 'assets' seems to be the only way (which is utterly frustrating) – Kevin Apr 18 '13 at 22:21
In Rails 4, removing `coffee-rails` may result in `cannot load such file -- coffee_script` errors due to stale coffee files in the `tmp/cache/assets` folder. Run `rake assets:clobber` to remove them. – Justin C Aug 19 '15 at 00:25
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In general, removing the item from the Gemfile should work, but there are caveats. `coffee-script` may be a dependency of another GEM. The best place to check for dependencies is `./Gemfile.lock`. For example: `coffee-rails` is a dependency of `turbolinks`, and `coffee-script` is a dependency of `coffee-rails`. So, if you remove `gem 'coffee-script'` from the Gemfile, but if you have `gem 'turbolinks''`, CoffeeScript will still be installed. – SalientGreen Sep 23 '15 at 14:50
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also if you use something like active_admin, coffescript is included as dependency there as well so this does not only apply to standard rails gems. Safest to use `config.generators do { |g| g.javascript_engine :js }` – codehugger Nov 04 '15 at 10:07
`config.generators` seems like the right way to do it. – R891 May 09 '16 at 02:09
Before remove from gemfile, execute rake tmp:cache:clear – Milton Quirino Aug 11 '17 at 18:25

Koen. · Answer 2 · 2015-04-27T20:17:40.853

28

Not sure if this counts for Rails 3.1 but in 4 you should also set the javascript_engine to :js in application.rb to instruct generators to create .js files instead of .js.coffee.

config.generators do |g|
  # .. other configuration ..
  g.javascript_engine :js
end

edited Apr 27 '15 at 20:17

answered Apr 08 '14 at 10:08

Koen.

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You can do this on one line, too: `config.generators.javascript_engine :js` – dotdotdotPaul Jul 16 '14 at 18:24
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This no longer appears to be necessary in Rails 4.1. Simply removing 'gem coffee-rails' from the Gemfile is enough. – CodeSmith Nov 22 '14 at 02:52
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It is still necessary even in Rails 4.1 if you have a transitive dependency on coffee-rails such as activeadmin – Stephen Crosby Jun 09 '15 at 02:17
This no longer necessary in Rails 4.2.4 – Fernando Kosh Oct 21 '15 at 19:45
It's necessary even in Rails 4.2.6. Without that, it generates coffeescript files. – R891 May 09 '16 at 02:08
1

this should be the top answer – BigRon Jan 06 '17 at 21:09

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 01 '17 at 17:59

Koen and Gaurav Gupta have good answers!

If you want to make these changes automatically for every new Rails project, you can use a template file.

In ~/rails-template.rb

# Don't install coffeescript
gsub_file 'Gemfile', /^gem \'coffee-rails\'/ do
  "\# gem 'coffee-rails'"
end

# Mess with generators to get the behavior we expect around new files
# For these injections, indentation matters!
inject_into_file 'config/application.rb', after: "class Application < Rails::Application\n" do
  <<-'RUBY'
    config.generators do |g|
      # Always use .js files, never .coffee
      g.javascript_engine :js
    end
  RUBY
end

Then in ~/.railsrc

-m ~/.rails-template.rb

Now whenever you run rails new, the coffeescript gem will be commented out, and new controllers will use .js instead of .coffee.

Tested on Rails 5.0.4, but I believe it should work for earlier versions as well.

As an aside, Rails templates, and generators in general, are super powerful. I'm a teacher and my students will typically create 15 to 20 rails projects through the course, and providing them with a good template file with debugging gems, spec style testing, etc. is a huge timesaver. After they've made the changes once themselves, of course. If you're interested, my personal .rails-template.rb is on GitHub.

Dominic · Answer 4 · 2013-07-11T17:55:52.093

-1

Note for Rails 4, or if you're using 'turbolinks', 'uglifier', or any other kind of gem that requires the server to interpret javascript, comment them out as well.

edited Jul 11 '13 at 17:55

answered Jul 11 '13 at 16:59

Dominic

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You may still want turbolinks or uglifier, even if you aren't still using CoffeeScript in your own source code. – Nick McCurdy Mar 05 '15 at 18:22

Kevin · Answer 5 · 2013-06-07T05:45:08.170

-4

I had this problem, as I am using codekit to compile my coffeescript.

I got around it by renaming my 'assets/coffee' folder to 'assets/cafe', so rail wouldn't find it.

Edit: What does work (and the ONLY thing that works for me, the above answer does not work) is to add a separate folder 'App/Coffee', and setting it to be compiled into the assets/javascript folder. If it's in the assets directory, rails will find it no matter the name.

edited Jun 07 '13 at 05:45

answered Sep 23 '12 at 00:12

Kevin

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Damn, scratch that after restarting rails it's found assets/cafe and is trying to compile it again. – Kevin Sep 24 '12 at 17:02

How can I completely disable CoffeeScript in a Rails 3.1 app?

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