Removing Turbolinks from a Ruby on Rails 4 Project

Turbolinks was a new feature introduced in Ruby on Rails 4 that attempts to bridge the gap between server-side applications and client-side applications. It provides some interesting functionality, but can often cause more trouble than it’s worth. Luckily, it can easily be removed from a project if required.

Manual Removal

1. Remove gem 'turbolinks' from your Gemfile and run bundle install.
2. Remove //= require turbolinks from app/assets/javascripts/application.js.
3. Remove both instances of "data-turbolinks-track" => true from app/views/layouts/application.html.erb.

Slightly More Automated Removal

I’ve also created a gem called remove_turbolinks to automate this process. It provides a command to automatically handle the removal of Turbolinks for you.

1. Add gem 'remove_turbolinks' to your Gemfile and run bundle install.
2. Run rails g remove_turbolinks:remove to remove all references to Turbolinks in your project.

It’s as easy as that to remove Turbolinks from your Ruby on Rails project. Turbolinks is an interesting technology, so it’s worth trying before your decide to remove it.