ADR-003: No frontend build tool (vanilla JS + UIkit)

Status

Accepted

Context

The project intentionally avoids a frontend build step. JavaScript files are served as plain scripts from public/js/. The CSS framework UIkit is included as a pre-built bundle. This keeps the development setup simple: no Node.js build pipeline required for PHP developers.

As the frontend grew, several large files emerged (admin.js at 11k+ lines, block-content-editor.js at 5k+ lines) and code duplication across the marketing-menu-*.js files became significant.

Decision

The project continues without a mandatory build tool. Code sharing is achieved through shared script files loaded before page-specific scripts (e.g. marketing-menu-common.js).

If bundle sizes or duplication become unmanageable, a lightweight bundler (Vite) may be evaluated. This would be introduced as an optional enhancement, not a hard requirement for development.

Consequences

• No build step means instant feedback during development.
• Large files must be split manually into smaller scripts.
• Shared utilities must be loaded via <script> tag order rather than imports.
• Tree-shaking and minification are not available without a build tool.