Nx 18, 'project crystal' and Inferred Tasks

[simondotm]

Just opening this topic for thoughts.

https://nx.dev/concepts/inferred-tasks
https://blog.nrwl.io/what-if-nx-plugins-were-more-like-vscode-extensions-dcdad140ae09

Looks like Nx version 18 is bringing some big changes with inferred tasks for project configurations.

Since nx-firebase uses @nx/node and @nx/esbuild plugins, this is likely to need some support.

[simondotm]

Oof, seems like this change is getting some feedback, and quite a few new issues in the Nx repo related to this new inferred magic.

I've joined a conversation on one issue, where another developer has questioned why inferred tasks were set as the new default behaviour, when many of us were quite happy having project configurations right in the project.json file. We were happy with that and didnt need it to be optimised, and now it is (possibly) going to change everyone's workspace.

I've not been looking into it too deeply yet, but I do have concerns. Mainly that this new Nx release will lead to user workspaces having different types of project configurations (inferred/explicit) and development of this plugin is going to give me a headache in terms of support & maintenance. It's already non-trivial with all the different Nx releases & API changes going on.

We'll see. 👀 😅

[simondotm]

@jaytavares since you mentioned Nx 18 in a PR comment, if you are willing/able or get a chance, please do share here with us any experience you get from using it with this plugin, if indeed you update your workspace to 18. Would be interesting to hear back if it works ok or not.

[simondotm]

fwiw, I have added 18.0.7 and 18.1.2 to my simple compat test suite and it passed my very basic compat tests, so that's mildly encouraging.

The nx.json config for 18.1.2 looks like this:

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/nx/schemas/nx-schema.json",
  "namedInputs": {
    "default": ["{projectRoot}/**/*", "sharedGlobals"],
    "production": [
      "default",
      "!{projectRoot}/.eslintrc.json",
      "!{projectRoot}/eslint.config.js",
      "!{projectRoot}/**/?(*.)+(spec|test).[jt]s?(x)?(.snap)",
      "!{projectRoot}/tsconfig.spec.json",
      "!{projectRoot}/jest.config.[jt]s",
      "!{projectRoot}/src/test-setup.[jt]s",
      "!{projectRoot}/test-setup.[jt]s"
    ],
    "sharedGlobals": []
  },
  "targetDefaults": {
    "@nx/esbuild:esbuild": {
      "cache": true,
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "inputs": ["production", "^production"]
    },
    "@nx/eslint:lint": {
      "cache": true,
      "inputs": [
        "default",
        "{workspaceRoot}/.eslintrc.json",
        "{workspaceRoot}/.eslintignore",
        "{workspaceRoot}/eslint.config.js"
      ]
    },
    "@nx/jest:jest": {
      "cache": true,
      "inputs": ["default", "^production", "{workspaceRoot}/jest.preset.js"],
      "options": {
        "passWithNoTests": true
      },
      "configurations": {
        "ci": {
          "ci": true,
          "codeCoverage": true
        }
      }
    },
    "@nx/js:tsc": {
      "cache": true,
      "dependsOn": ["^build"],
      "inputs": ["production", "^production"]
    }
  },
  "plugins": [
    {
      "plugin": "@nx/eslint/plugin",
      "options": {
        "targetName": "lint"
      }
    }
  ]
}

and the project.json for a function app generated by the plugin is the same as normal, so nothing inferred going on here yet:

{
  "name": "functions",
  "$schema": "../../node_modules/nx/schemas/project-schema.json",
  "sourceRoot": "apps/functions/src",
  "projectType": "application",
  "targets": {
    "build": {
      "executor": "@nx/esbuild:esbuild",
      "outputs": ["{options.outputPath}"],
      "options": {
        "outputPath": "dist/apps/functions",
        "main": "apps/functions/src/main.ts",
        "tsConfig": "apps/functions/tsconfig.app.json",
        "assets": [
          "apps/functions/src/assets",
          {
            "glob": "**/*",
            "input": "apps/firebase/environment",
            "output": "."
          }
        ],
        "generatePackageJson": true,
        "platform": "node",
        "bundle": true,
        "thirdParty": false,
        "dependenciesFieldType": "dependencies",
        "target": "node16",
        "format": ["esm"],
        "esbuildOptions": {
          "logLevel": "info"
        }
      }
    },
    "lint": {
      "executor": "@nx/eslint:lint"
    },
    "test": {
      "executor": "@nx/jest:jest",
      "outputs": ["{workspaceRoot}/coverage/{projectRoot}"],
      "options": {
        "jestConfig": "apps/functions/jest.config.ts"
      }
    },
    "deploy": {
      "executor": "nx:run-commands",
      "options": {
        "command": "nx run firebase:deploy --only functions:functions"
      },
      "dependsOn": ["build"]
    }
  },
  "tags": [
    "firebase:function",
    "firebase:name:functions",
    "firebase:dep:firebase"
  ]
}

[jaytavares]

We are on 18 already and it's working. It's worth noting that if you migrate to Nx 18 rather than create a new workspace, the inferred tasks behavior will be disabled via the NX_ADD_PLUGINS environment variable. That's our current situation.