Bower is deprecated since 2017, we should use npm instead

[razvanphp]

Q	A
Is bugfix?	❌
New feature?	✔️
Breaks BC?	❌

https://bower.io/blog/2017/how-to-migrate-away-from-bower/
https://www.yiiframework.com/wiki/785/use-minified-version-of-jqueryasset-bootstrapasset-and-all-default-assets - @robregonm

[what-the-diff]

PR Summary

• Shifted Dependency Source from Bower to NPM
  The source for the project dependencies was shifted from Bower to NPM. This change signifies a movement to a more reliable and frequently updated package manager, enhancing the overall stability and performance of the project.

• Updated Directory Paths to Reflect the New Dependency Source
  The pathways in several files had to be updated from referencing Bower directories to now pointing towards the corresponding NPM directories. This helps ensure smooth functionality as all calls to dependencies will now reach the correct files in the NPM directories.

• Modified the Testing Scripts
  The jQuery paths in the testing scripts were also updated to point to the NPM directory. These modifications ensure that the testing suite correctly interacts with the updated dependencies during testing, resulting in more accurate and reliable test results.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests ✅

Project coverage is 65.62%. Comparing base (9578380) to head (df5ea97).

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff            @@
##                2.2   #20135   +/-   ##
=========================================
  Coverage     65.62%   65.62%           
  Complexity    11213    11213           
=========================================
  Files           424      424           
  Lines         36681    36681           
=========================================
  Hits          24073    24073           
  Misses        12608    12608           

☔ View full report in Codecov by Sentry.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

[razvanphp]

Related discussion in #14297 and yiisoft/yii2-bootstrap#221

I would argue that the cons presented by @schmunk42 there are not valid for core deps like Jquery.

[razvanphp]

... or should we better switch to https://github.com/fxpio/foxy already? @francoispluchino what do you think?

[rob006]

Yii2 is not using bower or even bower registry directly (packages are fetched from https://asset-packagist.org/ and installed by composer), so bower deprecation has not affect here. yiisoft/yii2-bootstrap#221 (comment) mentioned some clear disadvantages of using npm registry, what are the practical benefits of such change?

[schmunk42]

... or should we better switch to https://github.com/fxpio/foxy already? @francoispluchino what do you think?

Foxy would be cool, but it requires npm or yarn to work.

[terabytesoftw]

... or should we better switch to https://github.com/fxpio/foxy already? @francoispluchino what do you think?

Foxy would be cool, but it requires npm or yarn to work.

btw, i forked it and made some improvements, since fpachucino is busy https://github.com/php-forge/foxy

[samdark]

@terabytesoftw asset-packagist works on it so if improvements are critical, it's worth contacting @hiqsol and @SilverFire so they update it there.

[mtangoo]

@razvanphp is there anything that did not work for you?
Yii2 is not using Bower, which make the whole PR invalid.
Do you disagree with that assessment?

[razvanphp]

I totally understand, it's more of psychological change, so Yii2 is not using obsolete repositories in it's core code and also to discourage further use of bower. More than that, it can be that bower really stops being maintained and then even asset-packagist can't pull the metadata for the packages, right?

[mtangoo]

More than that, it can be that bower really stops being maintained and then even asset-packagist can't pull the metadata for the packages, right?

I think @hiqsol and @SilverFire can comment on this one and the way forward if the shutdown of bower will indeed disrupt the service.

[mtangoo]

Looking at the site it clears things up:

This repository allows installation of Bower and NPM packages as native Composer packages.

At the moment we've added most popular Bower and NPM packages 4000+ each.

In case Composer fails to install some asset package, use the search line at the top of the page to check specific package health.

For NPM scoped packages use scope--package instead of @scope/package, e.g. npm-asset/pusher--chatkit.

It seems, at least to me, that it works for both Bower and NPM. Which means as long as NPM is up, we have nothing to worry if Bower goes away!

[mtangoo]

Moreover, if there is further doubt, it is better to log it on the repository at https://github.com/hiqdev/asset-packagist

If you have no further objection, I will close this PR