provisioning-outreach/presentations/rust-laspalmas-250926/info/framework_JS_tool_plan.md

Plan: Add External JS Minification Tool Support

 1. Configuration Structure

 Add a new [tools] section to the page config to specify external minification tools:
 [tools]
 # External minification tools (optional)
 js_minifier = "terser"  # terser, uglifyjs, esbuild, swc, or path to custom tool
 js_minifier_path = "/usr/local/bin/terser"  # Optional: explicit path
 js_minifier_args = ["--compress", "--mangle"]  # Optional: custom arguments
 css_minifier = ""  # Future: similar for CSS
 html_minifier = ""  # Future: similar for HTML

 2. Framework Changes

 A. Update framework/templates/page.config.toml.template

 - Add the [tools] section with sensible defaults
 - Document available minifiers and their options

 B. Update framework/core/framework-utils.nu

 - Add tool configuration extraction from page config
 - Handle optional tool paths and arguments

 C. Enhance framework/optimizers/optimize-js.nu

 - Add minify_js_with_tool function that:
   - Checks if external tool is configured
   - Validates tool availability
   - Falls back to built-in minification if tool not found
   - Handles tool execution with proper error handling

 D. Update framework/core/build.nu

 - Modify the JS build process to check for external tools
 - Use external tool for production/staging builds
 - Keep built-in minification for development or as fallback

 3. Tool Detection & Fallback Strategy

 # Pseudo-code for tool selection
 if $config.tools.js_minifier and not $dev {
     if (check_tool_available $config.tools.js_minifier) {
         use external_minifier
     } else {
         print warning "Tool not found, using built-in minifier"
         use built_in_minifier
     }
 } else {
     use built_in_minifier
 }

 4. Supported Tools

 Initially support these popular JS minifiers:
 - terser - Modern JS minifier (npm install -g terser)
 - uglifyjs - Classic JS minifier (npm install -g uglify-js)
 - esbuild - Fast bundler/minifier (npm install -g esbuild)
 - swc - Rust-based fast minifier (npm install -g @swc/cli @swc/core)

 5. Example Usage

 Pages that need advanced JS minification can configure:
 [tools]
 js_minifier = "terser"
 js_minifier_args = ["--compress", "drop_console=true", "--mangle", "--toplevel"]

 6. Benefits

 - Professional-grade minification for production
 - Configurable per page or globally
 - Graceful fallback to built-in minifier
 - Support for different tools based on project needs
 - Future extensibility for CSS and HTML tools