Most efficient way to get a Three.js project to work in a ruby on rails app?

Question

I'm trying -unsuccessfully- to get a Three.js project to work within the Ruby on Rails framework

I keep thinking that there must be an easier way to do this than the way I'm doing it at the moment

First I googled for a guide/tutorial on how to port working Three.js code to rails and found very little on the subject. Which I figure means: either people don't do it very often -or- that it's so obvious that no one has bothered to document it.

Next I googled for a three.js gem and found one here - http://rubygems.org/gems/threejs-rails (which I gave up trying to get to work - after much messing around with the manifest file)

Next I installed the source of Three.js into the vendors folder and messed around with the manifest file again. This time I had more success - although there seems to be dependency issues within Three.js that require_tree (and myself) are oblivious to.

So theoretically, I could probably get it to work after a several hours of figuring out the Three.js loading sequence, but this doesn't feel right.

I feel like I've gone down a blind alley here and I'm missing something obvious.

• is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

Rails is, primarily, a back end server side framework. Three.js is a front end library for rendering WebGL in a browser. They have little to do with each other. I think you're trying too hard.

The process is the same as adding something like jQuery, or any other javascript library.

1. Drop the three.js file in app/assets/javascripts/three.js
2. Add #= require three to your application.js.coffee
3. Ensure that javascript_include_tag('application') is part of your application layout template

Now launch the server, load a page, and type THREE in the javascript console. If you get a return value, your good! Now write some custom javascript, save it in app/assets/javascripts and include it on the pages you want to do awesome 3D stuff.

Answer 2

You can also use the following gem threejs-rails that I created for my rails app today. It works right out of the box if you're on rails 4+. Fork and submit a PR if you need further support on it!

Most efficient would obviously be via CDN, I plan to add that support soon.

Answer 3

I found it the probably easiest way - though not the proper Rails way - to include all dependencies as written here https://guides.rubyonrails.org/working_with_javascript_in_rails.html and then to simply create a partial with the JS code inside of a script type="module" tag. Though Alex Wayne's way is probably better, this one works, too.