use https://rails-assets.org for javascript dependencies

[nwoetzel]

here is a nice overview on how one can manage javascript dependencies in rails:
https://www.codefellows.org/blog/5-ways-to-manage-front-end-assets-in-rails
Currently, it is done by adding gems, where there are such available; if there is no gem available, they are copied into app/assets
Assets that are copied are currently and could be handled in the Gemfile like:

# javascript assets from https://rails-assets.org
gem 'bundler', '>= 1.8.4'
source 'https://rails-assets.org' do
  gem 'rails-assets-bxSlider', '~> 4.1.1'
  gem 'rails-assets-cytoscape', '~> 2.0.0'
  gem 'rails-assets-underscore', '~> 1.8.3'
end

[nwoetzel]

for the datatables.net javascript library, this is already done:

# javascript assets from https://rails-assets.org
gem 'bundler', '>= 1.8.4'
source 'https://rails-assets.org' do
  gem 'rails-assets-datatables.net-jqui', '~> 1.10.0'
  gem 'rails-assets-datatables.net-buttons-jqui', '~> 1.2.0'
end

[nwoetzel]

added also

  gem 'rails-assets-bxslider-4', '~> 4.1.0'
  gem 'rails-assets-underscore', '~> 1.8.3'

[nwoetzel]

Not all dependencies are available as bower packages, e.g. JSME. Currently, it is part of the repository and will need to be updated in here.
There is one solution I have found, that can download almost anything:
https://github.com/3ofcoins/vendorificator
This could be a better alternative compared to adding things to the repository