Before we start the upgrade process for Webpacker 6, we are going to create a small demo application for us to work on.

If you are upgrading an existing app or not using this series as a tutorial, you can skip this step! We will begin the formal upgrade process in the next article.

Generate a new Rails app

First we will generate new Ruby on Rails app:

rails new webpacker_6--skip-sprockets--skip-spring--skip-webpack-install--skip-bundlecdwebpacker_6

• --skip-sprockets: Skip Sprockets files
• --skip-spring: Don't install Spring application preloader
• --skip-bundle: Don't run bundle install
• --skip-webpack-install: Don't run Webpack install

Setup the Database

bin/rails db:prepare

Turn off asset scaffolding

Prevent Rails from creating asset files when running the generators and scaffolds:

# config/application.rb# ...module Webpacker6  class Application < Rails::Application    config.load_defaults 6.1+    config.generators do |g|+      g.assets false+    end  endend

Add Pages Controller

Generate pages controller with a home action:

bin/rails g controller pages home

Add Root Route

Setpages#home as the root route:

# config/routes.rbRails.application.routes.draw do  get 'pages/home'+  root to: 'pages#home'  # For details on the DSL available within this file, see https://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.htmlend

Note: Because we skipped the Webpacker install task, you will get an error if you try to start the application as is. We will fix that in the next article.