Yii2 combining & compressing assets not working with groups of bundles - php

Question

I'm having trouble understanding how combine&compress of Yii2 assets work. I read the section in the guide (http://www.yiiframework.com/doc-2.0/guide-structure-assets.html) still I cannot make it work or at least understand the very basics of this matter.
From the example given there I am not able to reproduce that and solve the following scenario.
AppAsset contains the main css/js for the application. Shared and essential code is supposed to be included here. This one depends on another file called ExternalAssets which in turn depends on YiiAsset, BootstrapAsset and so forth.
CheckoutAsset contains code only relevant to the checkout process. Should be included as well with the above because it add custom functionality but only relevant to this section. $depends on AppAsset.
ProductViewAsset is the same as above but related to the visualization of a given product.
The asset configuration is given:
'bundles' => [
'yii\web\JqueryAsset',
'rmrevin\yii\fontawesome\AssetBundle',
'yii\web\YiiAsset',
'yii\bootstrap\BootstrapAsset',
'yii\bootstrap\BootstrapPluginAsset',
'yii\widgets\ActiveFormAsset',
'frontend\assets\ExternalAssets',
'frontend\assets\AppAsset',
],
'targets' => [
'app' => [
'class' => 'yii\web\AssetBundle',
'basePath' => '#webroot/assets',
'baseUrl' => '#web/assets',
'js' => 'js/app-{hash}.js',
'css' => 'css/app-{hash}.css',
'depends' => [ ],
],
]
At this point I'm able to compress everything that is supposed to be common (although it maybe possible to strip some unnecessary files) but in the pages that use the ProductViewAsset or the CheckoutAsset the files included there do not get compressed in the same fashion.
Maybe it is possible to compress everything to a single file in the checkout process (common data + checkout data) or maybe not due to caching reasons. Don't know if this is possible yet I am unable to make it work. This is as far as I got with this. I tried doing this because it seemed natural but I started having errors like this one PHP Notice 'yii\base\ErrorException' with message 'Undefined index: frontend\assets\ExternalAssets' when trying to make different asset bundle groups:
'targets' => [
'app' => [
'class' => 'yii\web\AssetBundle',
'basePath' => '#webroot/assets',
'baseUrl' => '#web/assets',
'js' => 'js/app-{hash}.js',
'css' => 'css/app-{hash}.css',
'depends' => [
// 'frontend\assets\ExternalAssets'
],
'checkout' => [
'class' => 'yii\web\AssetBundle',
'basePath' => '#webroot/assets',
'baseUrl' => '#web/assets',
'js' => 'js/checkout-{hash}.js',
'css' => 'css/checkout-{hash}.css',
'depends' => [
'frontend\assets\AppAssets'
],
],
Maybe I'm looking at the wrong approach here but I'm not able to quite figure out what is the best way of doing this. I think that compressing everything to a single file should work better than not combine&compress the files yet I think it is possible to optimize the combine&compression approach in this case.
Thanks!

Answer 1

I am not sure if i understand the question you are giving, this is what i interpret as your requirements.
Make a normal action in your site controller calling a view 'site/assets/'
public function actionAssets()
{
return $this->render('assets');
}
Arrange your view like this example -
<?php
use dmstr\web\AdminLteAsset;
use backend\assets\AppAsset;
use dosamigos\fileupload\FileUploadPlusAsset;
use dosamigos\fileupload\FileUploadAsset;
use dosamigos\gallery\GalleryAsset;
use dosamigos\fileupload\FileUploadUIAsset;
use dosamigos\gallery\DosamigosAsset;
use budyaga\cropper\assets\CropperAsset;
use kartik\base\Html5InputAsset;
use kartik\base\WidgetAsset;
use kartik\form\ActiveFormAsset;
use kartik\affix\AffixAsset;
use kartik\alert\AlertAsset;
use kartik\color\ColorInputAsset;
use kartik\date\DatePickerAsset;
use kartik\datetime\DateTimePickerAsset;
use kartik\depdrop\DepDropAsset;
use kartik\depdrop\DepDropExtAsset;
use kartik\file\FileInputThemeAsset;
use kartik\growl\GrowlAsset;
use kartik\base\AnimateAsset;
use kartik\select2\Select2Asset;
use kartik\sidenav\SideNavAsset;
use kartik\spinner\SpinnerAsset;
use kartik\switchinput\SwitchInputAsset;
use kartik\time\TimePickerAsset;
use kartik\touchspin\TouchSpinAsset;
use kartik\typeahead\TypeaheadAsset;
use kartik\grid\GridViewAsset;
use kartik\dialog\DialogAsset;
$view = $this;
AdminLteAsset::register($this);
AppAsset::register($this);
FileUploadPlusAsset::register($view);
FileUploadAsset::register($view);
GalleryAsset::register($view);
FileUploadUIAsset::register($view);
DosamigosAsset::register($view);
CropperAsset::register($view);
Html5InputAsset::register($view);
WidgetAsset::register($view);
ActiveFormAsset::register($view);
AffixAsset::register($this);
AlertAsset::register($view);
ColorInputAsset::register($view);
DatePickerAsset::register($view);
DateTimePickerAsset::register($view);
DepDropAsset::register($view);
DepDropExtAsset::register($view);
FileInputThemeAsset::register($view);
GrowlAsset::register($view);
AnimateAsset::register($view);
Select2Asset::register($view);
SideNavAsset::register($this);
SpinnerAsset::register($view);
SwitchInputAsset::register($view);
TimePickerAsset::register($view);
TouchSpinAsset::register($view);
TypeaheadAsset::register($view);
GridViewAsset::register($view);
DialogAsset::register($view);
?>
<?php $this->beginPage() ?>
<?php $this->beginBody() ?>
<p>Done</p>
<?php $this->endBody() ?>
<?php $this->endPage() ?>
Then make sure to hit this link before you do a deployment to prod to recompile assets.