jarednorman · February 19, 2017 20:48 · Feb 22, 2016 · Feb 22, 2016 · Feb 22, 2016
diff --git a/webpack-rails-2.markdown b/webpack-rails-2.markdown
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 __Note:__ _This article is more generally about how to add dependencies to a
 Rake task, and why you might want to do that._
 
-If you followed [my previous article](/2015/webpack-with-rails/) on webpack and
+If you followed [my previous article](https://gist.github.com/jarednorman/11a1cbb11b389fb0501e) on webpack and
 Rails, you might have built yourself a trendy little
 [React](https://facebook.github.io/react/) app. Then you tried to deploy it, and
 that didn't work, did it?

diff --git a/webpack-rails-2.markdown b/webpack-rails-2.markdown
@@ -40,6 +40,4 @@ task :webpack do
 end
 ```
 
-Ship it.
-
-Comments or questions? [Tweet your feelings at me.](https://twitter.com/_jaredn)
+Ship it.
diff --git a/webpack-rails-2.markdown b/webpack-rails-2.markdown
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+# Webpack with Rails Part 2: Precompile Harder
+
+__Note:__ _This article is more generally about how to add dependencies to a
+Rake task, and why you might want to do that._
+
+If you followed [my previous article](/2015/webpack-with-rails/) on webpack and
+Rails, you might have built yourself a trendy little
+[React](https://facebook.github.io/react/) app. Then you tried to deploy it, and
+that didn't work, did it?
+
+## Wait, what are you on about?
+
+Whether you're doing artifact-based deploys, git deploys, or something else
+altogether, at some point something is going to run `rake assets:precompile`.
+This will work but miss your webpack generated assets, because unless you
+checked your compiled entries in (please, tell me you didn't do that) they
+won't exist when the rake task is run because webpack never did its thing.
+
+The best solution, rather than to modify your deploy system, is to add a
+dependency to the `assets:precompile` rake task that runs webpack. This is the
+correct thing to do (though it might look like a hack) because the
+`assets:precompile` doesn't actually do it's job properly if you haven't run
+webpack first. It really does depend on webpack.
+
+## Adding a Dependency to Rake Task
+
+You can add a dependency to a rake task just by redefining it without a block,
+and passing dependencies just like you normally would.
+
+```ruby
+# lib/tasks/assets.rake
+
+namespace :assets do
+  task :precompile => :webpack
+end
+
+task :webpack do
+  sh "npm install"
+  sh "./node_modules/.bin/webpack"
+end
+```
+
+Ship it.
+
+Comments or questions? [Tweet your feelings at me.](https://twitter.com/_jaredn)