Rails 4 - In production my javascript is loaded but does not work while it works well in development

Question

I work with :

• Rails version 4.2.3
• Ruby version 2.2.1

I have managed to run my application in production doing these steps :

1. rake db:create RAILS_ENV=production
2. rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production
3. rake assets:precompile and rake assets:precompile RAILS_ENV=production

I had some troubles with my application.js and application.css files because all the require were not in the right orders. I had to put require_tree at the bottom and require jquery at the top directly followed by require jquery_ujs .

Now my files are the following :

• application.js file :

//= require jquery
//= require jquery_ujs
//= require bootstrap
//= require dataTables/jquery.dataTables
//= require dataTables/extras/dataTables.tableTools
//= require_tree .

• application.css file :

 /*
 *= require_self
 *= require bootstrap
 *= require dataTables/jquery.dataTables
 *= require_tree .
 */

• production.rb file :

Rails.application.configure do


  # Force all access to the app over SSL, use Strict-Transport-Security,
  # and use secure cookies.
  config.force_ssl = false

  # Settings specified here will take precedence over those in config/application.rb.

  # Code is not reloaded between requests.
  config.cache_classes = true

  # Eager load code on boot. This eager loads most of Rails and
  # your application in memory, allowing both threaded web servers
  # and those relying on copy on write to perform better.
  # Rake tasks automatically ignore this option for performance.
  config.eager_load = true

  # Full error reports are disabled and caching is turned on.
  config.consider_all_requests_local       = false
  config.action_controller.perform_caching = true

  # Enable Rack::Cache to put a simple HTTP cache in front of your application
  # Add `rack-cache` to your Gemfile before enabling this.
  # For large-scale production use, consider using a caching reverse proxy like
  # NGINX, varnish or squid.
  # config.action_dispatch.rack_cache = true

  # Disable serving static files from the `/public` folder by default since
  # Apache or NGINX already handles this.
  config.serve_static_files = ENV['RAILS_SERVE_STATIC_FILES'].present?

  # Compress JavaScripts and CSS.
  config.assets.js_compressor = :uglifier
  # config.assets.css_compressor = :sass

  # Do not fallback to assets pipeline if a precompiled asset is missed.
  config.assets.compile = true

  # Asset digests allow you to set far-future HTTP expiration dates on all assets,
  # yet still be able to expire them through the digest params.
  config.assets.digest = true

  # `config.assets.precompile` and `config.assets.version` have moved to config/initializers/assets.rb

  # Specifies the header that your server uses for sending files.
  # config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = 'X-Sendfile' # for Apache
  # config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = 'X-Accel-Redirect' # for NGINX

  # Force all access to the app over SSL, use Strict-Transport-Security, and use secure cookies.
  # config.force_ssl = true

  # Use the lowest log level to ensure availability of diagnostic information
  # when problems arise.
  config.log_level = :debug

  # Prepend all log lines with the following tags.
  # config.log_tags = [ :subdomain, :uuid ]

  # Use a different logger for distributed setups.
  # config.logger = ActiveSupport::TaggedLogging.new(SyslogLogger.new)

  # Use a different cache store in production.
  # config.cache_store = :mem_cache_store

  # Enable serving of images, stylesheets, and JavaScripts from an asset server.
  # config.action_controller.asset_host = 'http://assets.example.com'

  # Ignore bad email addresses and do not raise email delivery errors.
  # Set this to true and configure the email server for immediate delivery to raise delivery errors.
  # config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = false

  # Enable locale fallbacks for I18n (makes lookups for any locale fall back to
  # the I18n.default_locale when a translation cannot be found).
  config.i18n.fallbacks = true

  # Send deprecation notices to registered listeners.
  config.active_support.deprecation = :notify

  # Use default logging formatter so that PID and timestamp are not suppressed.
  config.log_formatter = ::Logger::Formatter.new

  # Do not dump schema after migrations.
  config.active_record.dump_schema_after_migration = false
end

• development.rb file :

Rails.application.configure do
  # Settings specified here will take precedence over those in config/application.rb.

  # In the development environment your application's code is reloaded on
  # every request. This slows down response time but is perfect for development
  # since you don't have to restart the web server when you make code changes.
  config.cache_classes = false

  # Do not eager load code on boot.
  config.eager_load = false

  # Show full error reports and disable caching.
  config.consider_all_requests_local       = true
  config.action_controller.perform_caching = false

  # Don't care if the mailer can't send.
  config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = false

  # Print deprecation notices to the Rails logger.
  config.active_support.deprecation = :log

  # Raise an error on page load if there are pending migrations.
  config.active_record.migration_error = :page_load

  # Debug mode disables concatenation and preprocessing of assets.
  # This option may cause significant delays in view rendering with a large
  # number of complex assets.
  config.assets.debug = true

  # Asset digests allow you to set far-future HTTP expiration dates on all assets,
  # yet still be able to expire them through the digest params.
  config.assets.digest = true

  # Do not compress assets
  # config.assets.compress = false

  # Adds additional error checking when serving assets at runtime.
  # Checks for improperly declared sprockets dependencies.
  # Raises helpful error messages.
  config.assets.raise_runtime_errors = true

  # Raises error for missing translations
  # config.action_view.raise_on_missing_translations = true
end

However all the javascript that I wrote is not working in production. I looked into my browser consol and my javascript is loaded I can see it in the DOM when I right click "inspect element".

So why my javascript works in development but is not working in production ?

I tried several options :

• 1st try : I add the line config.assets.precompile += %w( *.css *.js)
• 2nd try : config.assets.precompile += %w( *.css *scss *.js)

• 3rd try : I found that in config/initializers/assets.rb was a line of code very similar to what I tried in my 1st and 2nd try so I enabled this line of code in config/initializers/assets.rb : Rails.application.config.assets.precompile += %w( search.js ) but I still have nothing.

• 4th try : I read in another post on Stackoverflow that removing in my GemFile jquery-ui-rails could work but I still have no javascript

Here is my GemFile :

source 'https://rubygems.org'


# Bundle edge Rails instead: gem 'rails', github: 'rails/rails'
gem 'rails', '4.2.3'

#To have charts on rails
gem 'chartkick'

#Turn into pdf
gem 'pdfkit'
#To read, write spreadsheets
gem 'spreadsheet', '~> 1.0.3'
#To import CSV file and spreadsheets
gem 'roo', '~> 2.1.0'
#To improve tables style
gem 'jquery-datatables-rails', '~> 3.3.0'
gem 'jquery-ui-rails'
#Pour qu'il fonctionne, le gem bcrypt doit être utilisé sous sa version 3.1.9
gem 'bcrypt', '~>3.1.7'

gem 'bootstrap-sass', '3.2.0.0'
# Use mysql as the database for Active Record
gem 'mysql2'
# Use SCSS for stylesheets
gem 'sass-rails', '~> 5.0'
# Use Uglifier as compressor for JavaScript assets
gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.3.0'
# Use CoffeeScript for .coffee assets and views
gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 4.1.0'
# See https://github.com/rails/execjs#readme for more supported runtimes
# gem 'therubyracer', platforms: :ruby

# Use jquery as the JavaScript library
gem 'jquery-rails'
# Turbolinks makes following links in your web application faster. Read more: https://github.com/rails/turbolinks
#gem 'turbolinks'
# Build JSON APIs with ease. Read more: https://github.com/rails/jbuilder
gem 'jbuilder', '~> 2.0'
# bundle exec rake doc:rails generates the API under doc/api.
gem 'sdoc', '~> 0.4.0', group: :doc

# Use ActiveModel has_secure_password
# gem 'bcrypt', '~> 3.1.7'

# Use Unicorn as the app server
# gem 'unicorn'

# Use Capistrano for deployment
# gem 'capistrano-rails', group: :development

group :development, :test do
  # Call 'byebug' anywhere in the code to stop execution and get a debugger console
  gem 'byebug'

  # Access an IRB console on exception pages or by using <%= console %> in views
  gem 'web-console', '~> 2.0'
end

# Windows does not include zoneinfo files, so bundle the tzinfo-data gem
gem 'tzinfo-data', platforms: [:mingw, :mswin, :x64_mingw, :jruby]

Would anyone have an idea about what's happening ? Why my javascript is not working in production but works well in development ?

Answer 1

In production mode, it should server by web servers(Apache, Nginx) and will work. until that fix you can load all files in production rather loading a compressed single application.js and application.css file. For that in production.rb file disable the config variable. like below

config.serve_static_assets = false

Answer 2

The problem lies within your application.js and more specifically I believe where your bootstrap is being called. What fixed it for me was moving bootstrap to the bottom.

Asset pipeline is disabled in dev which is why you did not experience the same issues there.