dependency on external jar file for admin js minification needs better documentation

[Gabriel Hurley]

In revision [12371] jezdez added contrib/admin/media/js/compress.py, which is very handy but is also dependent on the developer having downloaded and installed Google's ​Closure Compiler. That's further complicated by the fact that Closure Compiler relies on Java 6 (or Java 1.6 on Mac OS X, which was not the default shipped version of Java until Snow Leopard).

While I eventually figured out what compiler it was looking for from the help text on the -c flag ( "path to closure compiler jar file"), having proper documentation of the external requirement, where to download the compiler from, a note about the potential trouble with Mac OS X, etc. would be more developer-friendly. Comments in the source and/or improved help text are probably the place to add the notes.

I'll write up a patch a bit later.

[Russell Keith-Magee]

This needs to be documented in two ways:

1. That the dependency exists if you want to contribute a fix to Django's admin javascript code
2. The change in procedure for how to contribute a fix to javascript.

I suspect both of these should be additions to the contributing docs, similar to the way that ​the process for submitting translation updates is documented.

[Jannis Leidel]

You got me, this needs documentation in the contribution docs. But FWIW, I don't think minification (Russ' bullet point 1) should be a required step for contributed admin JavaScript fixes. We always compile translation files before committing them, too.

[Gabriel Hurley]

adds info on minifying admin javascript and compress.py

[Gabriel Hurley]

I've attached a patch as per Russ's earlier direction. It was written before I saw jezdez's comment.

For what it's worth, IMHO it's better to:

1. "require" people to include the minified version in their patch, knowing that they're human and it'll often be necessary to minify them again before committing, rather than
2. not require people to include it and have them almost never submit a minified version in the patch.

Also, another question as long as we're talking about it: should the other admin javascript files eventually be transitioned to using compressed versions as well? Currently compress.py only hits 3 files even though it says it compresses "all" of them.

[Jannis Leidel]

(In [12969]) Fixed #13290 - Added a section about minification of admin JavaScript files to the contributing docs. Thanks to Gabriel Hurley for the report and patch.

[Jacob]

Milestone 1.2 deleted