feature:frontend:init

Introduction

feature:frontend:init gives a legacy feature a frontend/ of its own. From then on the SPLENT toolchain builds its bundle, against the feature’s own dependencies instead of the product’s. You run it once per feature.

splent feature:frontend:init charts

  ✅ splent_feature_charts has frontend/ of its own.
     entries       charts
     removed       assets/js/webpack.config.js

  Build it with: splent feature:compile charts

Build it, check the pages that load the bundle, and commit frontend/ (without node_modules) with the rest of the changes.

What it writes

File	Content
`frontend/package.json`	The entries of the old config, the feature’s licence and the toolchain’s `engines`
`frontend/.npmrc`	`save-exact`, `ignore-scripts` and `engine-strict`
`frontend/webpack.extra.js`	Only when the old config set a `resolve.fallback`
`frontend/package-lock.json`	Only when there are dependencies
`.gitignore`, `MANIFEST.in`	Their `frontend/` variants, as `feature:sync-template` writes them

The entries keep the bundle names your templates load, so charts.bundle.js is the entry charts. Without a config, the entry is assets/js/scripts.js when it exists.

Adopting the libraries you vendored

splent feature:frontend:init charts --adopt-vendor

     dependency    chart.js 4.5.1
     removed       src/splent_io/splent_feature_charts/assets/vendor/chart.js-4.5.1.umd.min.js

--adopt-vendor turns the npm packages copied into assets/vendor into exact dependencies, installs them, and removes the copies. A folder of assets/vendor/npm is a package at the version of its package.json. A file an alias points at is the package the alias names, at the version in the file name.

Carrying over what it could not move

     kept          assets/js/webpack.config.js, which the toolchain no longer reads. Carry these over to frontend/webpack.extra.js, then delete it:
                   resolve.alias ui-lib

When the old config sets more, it stays and the command lists what is left. Move each item to frontend/webpack.extra.js, then delete the config. A prebuilt file you serve as it is can be copied from npm into assets/dist.

// frontend/webpack.extra.js
const CopyPlugin = require("copy-webpack-plugin");

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    new CopyPlugin({
      patterns: [{ from: "node_modules/some-ui-dist/some-ui.js", info: { minimized: true } }],
    }),
  ],
};

info: { minimized: true } keeps the file byte for byte. A feature whose bundle is only such copies sets "entries": {}.

Reference

Argument or option	Description
`FEATURE_REF`	`charts`, `splent_feature_charts` or `splent-io/splent_feature_charts`, its working copy
`--adopt-vendor`	Make the npm packages in `assets/vendor` exact dependencies, remove the copies, and drop the aliases and `resolve.modules` that pointed at them

Message	What to do
`<name> already has frontend/package.json.`	Nothing to do
`<ref> names a pinned version, which never changes.`	Name the feature without `@<version>`
`The legacy entry <key> is not one file`	Write `splent.entries` by hand
`npm install failed, and frontend/package.json is written`	Fix what npm reports, then run `splent feature:npm <name> install`

Requirements

A working copy at the workspace root without frontend/package.json.
Docker, and the network for npm.