237 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
237 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
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# Frontend Development Guidelines
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This document describes various guidelines to ensure consistency and quality
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across GitLab's frontend team.
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## Overview
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GitLab is built on top of [Ruby on Rails][rails] using [Haml][haml] with
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[Hamlit][hamlit]. Be wary of [the limitations that come with using
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Hamlit][hamlit-limits]. We also use [SCSS][scss] and plain JavaScript with
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[ES6 by way of Babel][es6].
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The asset pipeline is [Sprockets][sprockets], which handles the concatenation,
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minification, and compression of our assets.
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[jQuery][jquery] is used throughout the application's JavaScript, with
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[Vue.js][vue] for particularly advanced, dynamic elements.
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### Vue
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For more complex frontend features, we recommend using Vue.js. It shares
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some ideas with React.js as well as Angular.
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To get started with Vue, read through [their documentation][vue-docs].
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## Performance
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### Resources
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- [WebPage Test][web-page-test] for testing site loading time and size.
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- [Google PageSpeed Insights][pagespeed-insights] grades web pages and provides feedback to improve the page.
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- [Profiling with Chrome DevTools][google-devtools-profiling]
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- [Browser Diet][browser-diet] is a community-built guide that catalogues practical tips for improving web page performance.
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### Page-specific JavaScript
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Certain pages may require the use of a third party library, such as [d3][d3] for
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the User Activity Calendar and [Chart.js][chartjs] for the Graphs pages. These
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libraries increase the page size significantly, and impact load times due to
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bandwidth bottlenecks and the browser needing to parse more JavaScript.
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In cases where libraries are only used on a few specific pages, we use
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"page-specific JavaScript" to prevent the main `application.js` file from
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becoming unnecessarily large.
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Steps to split page-specific JavaScript from the main `application.js`:
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1. Create a directory for the specific page(s), e.g. `graphs/`.
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1. In that directory, create a `namespace_bundle.js` file, e.g. `graphs_bundle.js`.
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1. In `graphs_bundle.js` add the line `//= require_tree .`, this adds all other files in the directory to the bundle.
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1. Add any necessary libraries to `app/assets/javascripts/lib/`, all files directly descendant from this directory will be precompiled as separate assets, in this case `chart.js` would be added.
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1. Add the new "bundle" file to the list of precompiled assets in
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`config/application.rb`.
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- For example: `config.assets.precompile << "graphs/graphs_bundle.js"`.
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1. Move code reliant on these libraries into the `graphs` directory.
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1. In the relevant views, add the scripts to the page with the following:
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```haml
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- content_for :page_specific_javascripts do
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= page_specific_javascript_tag('lib/chart.js')
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= page_specific_javascript_tag('graphs/graphs_bundle.js')
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```
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The above loads `chart.js` and `graphs_bundle.js` for this page only. `chart.js`
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is separated from the bundle file so it can be cached separately from the bundle
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and reused for other pages that also rely on the library. For an example, see
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[this Haml file][page-specific-js-example].
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### Minimizing page size
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A smaller page size means the page loads faster (especially important on mobile
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and poor connections), the page is parsed more quickly by the browser, and less
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data is used for users with capped data plans.
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General tips:
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- Don't add new fonts.
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- Prefer font formats with better compression, e.g. WOFF2 is better than WOFF, which is better than TTF.
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- Compress and minify assets wherever possible (For CSS/JS, Sprockets does this for us).
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- If some functionality can reasonably be achieved without adding extra libraries, avoid them.
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- Use page-specific JavaScript as described above to dynamically load libraries that are only needed on certain pages.
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## Accessibility
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### Resources
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[Chrome Accessibility Developer Tools][chrome-accessibility-developer-tools]
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are useful for testing for potential accessibility problems in GitLab.
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Accessibility best-practices and more in-depth information is available on
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[the Audit Rules page][audit-rules] for the Chrome Accessibility Developer Tools.
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## Security
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### Resources
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[Mozilla’s HTTP Observatory CLI][observatory-cli] and the
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[Qualys SSL Labs Server Test][qualys-ssl] are good resources for finding
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potential problems and ensuring compliance with security best practices.
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<!-- Uncomment these sections when CSP/SRI are implemented.
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### Content Security Policy (CSP)
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Content Security Policy is a web standard that intends to mitigate certain
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forms of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) as well as data injection.
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Content Security Policy rules should be taken into consideration when
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implementing new features, especially those that may rely on connection with
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external services.
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GitLab's CSP is used for the following:
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- Blocking plugins like Flash and Silverlight from running at all on our pages.
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- Blocking the use of scripts and stylesheets downloaded from external sources.
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- Upgrading `http` requests to `https` when possible.
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- Preventing `iframe` elements from loading in most contexts.
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Some exceptions include:
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- Scripts from Google Analytics and Piwik if either is enabled.
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- Connecting with GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab.com, etc. to allow project importing.
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- Connecting with Google, Twitter, GitHub, etc. to allow OAuth authentication.
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We use [the Secure Headers gem][secure_headers] to enable Content
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Security Policy headers in the GitLab Rails app.
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Some resources on implementing Content Security Policy:
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- [MDN Article on CSP][mdn-csp]
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- [GitHub’s CSP Journey on the GitHub Engineering Blog][github-eng-csp]
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- The Dropbox Engineering Blog's series on CSP: [1][dropbox-csp-1], [2][dropbox-csp-2], [3][dropbox-csp-3], [4][dropbox-csp-4]
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### Subresource Integrity (SRI)
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Subresource Integrity prevents malicious assets from being provided by a CDN by
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guaranteeing that the asset downloaded is identical to the asset the server
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is expecting.
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The Rails app generates a unique hash of the asset, which is used as the
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asset's `integrity` attribute. The browser generates the hash of the asset
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on-load and will reject the asset if the hashes do not match.
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All CSS and JavaScript assets should use Subresource Integrity. For implementation details,
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see the documentation for [the Sprockets implementation of SRI][sprockets-sri].
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Some resources on implementing Subresource Integrity:
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- [MDN Article on SRI][mdn-sri]
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- [Subresource Integrity on the GitHub Engineering Blog][github-eng-sri]
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-->
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### Including external resources
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External fonts, CSS, and JavaScript should never be used with the exception of
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Google Analytics and Piwik - and only when the instance has enabled it. Assets
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should always be hosted and served locally from the GitLab instance. Embedded
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resources via `iframes` should never be used except in certain circumstances
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such as with ReCaptcha, which cannot be used without an `iframe`.
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### Avoiding inline scripts and styles
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In order to protect users from [XSS vulnerabilities][xss], we will disable inline scripts in the future using Content Security Policy.
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While inline scripts can be useful, they're also a security concern. If
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user-supplied content is unintentionally left un-sanitized, malicious users can
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inject scripts into the web app.
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Inline styles should be avoided in almost all cases, they should only be used
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when no alternatives can be found. This allows reusability of styles as well as
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readability.
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## Style guides and linting
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See the relevant style guides for our guidelines and for information on linting:
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- [SCSS][scss-style-guide]
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## Testing
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Feature tests need to be written for all new features. Regression tests
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also need to be written for all bug fixes to prevent them from occurring
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again in the future.
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See [the Testing Standards and Style Guidelines](testing.md) for more
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information.
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## Supported browsers
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For our currently-supported browsers, see our [requirements][requirements].
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[rails]: http://rubyonrails.org/
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[haml]: http://haml.info/
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[hamlit]: https://github.com/k0kubun/hamlit
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[hamlit-limits]: https://github.com/k0kubun/hamlit/blob/master/REFERENCE.md#limitations
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[scss]: http://sass-lang.com/
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[es6]: https://babeljs.io/
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[sprockets]: https://github.com/rails/sprockets
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[jquery]: https://jquery.com/
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[vue]: http://vuejs.org/
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[vue-docs]: http://vuejs.org/guide/index.html
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[web-page-test]: http://www.webpagetest.org/
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[pagespeed-insights]: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
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[google-devtools-profiling]: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/profile/?hl=en
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[browser-diet]: https://browserdiet.com/
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[d3]: https://d3js.org/
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[chartjs]: http://www.chartjs.org/
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[page-specific-js-example]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/13bb9ed77f405c5f6ee4fdbc964ecf635c9a223f/app/views/projects/graphs/_head.html.haml#L6-8
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[chrome-accessibility-developer-tools]: https://github.com/GoogleChrome/accessibility-developer-tools
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[audit-rules]: https://github.com/GoogleChrome/accessibility-developer-tools/wiki/Audit-Rules
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[observatory-cli]: https://github.com/mozilla/http-observatory-cli)
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[qualys-ssl]: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html
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[secure_headers]: https://github.com/twitter/secureheaders
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[mdn-csp]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/CSP
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[github-eng-csp]: http://githubengineering.com/githubs-csp-journey/
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[dropbox-csp-1]: https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/2015/09/on-csp-reporting-and-filtering/
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[dropbox-csp-2]: https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/2015/09/unsafe-inline-and-nonce-deployment/
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[dropbox-csp-3]: https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/2015/09/csp-the-unexpected-eval/
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[dropbox-csp-4]: https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/2015/09/csp-third-party-integrations-and-privilege-separation/
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[mdn-sri]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Subresource_Integrity
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[github-eng-sri]: http://githubengineering.com/subresource-integrity/
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[sprockets-sri]: https://github.com/rails/sprockets-rails#sri-support
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[xss]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting
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[scss-style-guide]: scss_styleguide.md
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[requirements]: ../install/requirements.md#supported-web-browsers
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## Common Errors
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### Rspec (Capybara/Poltergeist) chokes on general JavaScript errors
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If you see very generic JavaScript errors (e.g. `jQuery is undefined`) being thrown in tests, but
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can't reproduce them manually, you may have included `ES6`-style JavaScript in files that don't
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have the `.js.es6` file extension. Either use ES5-friendly JavaScript or rename the file you're
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working in (`git mv <file>.js> <file.js.es6>`).
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