[request] Command to only re-build theme.json (or no-op)

[strarsis]

Agreement

• This is not a duplicate of an existing issue
• I have read the guidelines for Contributing to Roots Projects
• This is not a personal support request that should be posted on the Roots Discourse community

The feature

A separate bud command (or from its theme.json extension) that re-generates the theme.json
(or no-op if the theme.json generation by bud is not enabled).

E.g. something like bud build theme.json or bud build-themejson maybe?
Or is there already a sub-command or other flag/option that can be used to only build the theme.json?

Use case

The wp i18n CLI tool can (and should) also scan the theme.json for source translation strings
(as of colors, font-sizes, template parts, etc.).
When the translate:pot script of Sage theme is invoked, the theme.json should first be re-build
(if generation is enabled, otherwise just no-op), for the theme.json to be scanned being up-to-date.
A full rebuild otherwise can be too time consuming and also distracting,
as only the theme.json is (currently) relevant for scanning of translation source strings.

Notes

Related issue (Sage theme): roots/sage#3076 (comment)

[kellymears]

For now, my inclination is to not add complexity and continue to treat it as a build artifact (like entrypoints.json or manifest.json).

It is relatively easy to add as a bespoke script. Maybe build-scripts/pre-translate.js:

import {factory} from '@roots/bud';

const bud = await factory();
await bud.extensions.add(`@roots/bud-wordpress-theme-json`)

//
const {path, ...json} = bud.wpjson.options
await bud.fs.json.write(path, json);

Then add it to scripts in package.json:

// ...
"scripts": {
  "translate": "node ./build-scripts/pre-translate.js && wp translate ..."
}
// ...

Not super ideal but I think this is a very particular need. Especially if there is js to translate, since that necessitates a build anyway?

Willing to revisit this in the future or entertain follow up. I do think there is something to making it easier to generically script with bud.js. I've tried to make it simple but it's been secondary to the cli since that's how nearly 100% of users interface with it.

[strarsis]

Yes, this approach looks good.

Would it make sense to have a npm package as bud extension that adds a sub-command?

that necessitates a build anyway?
No, it indeed scans the original JavaScript source files in resources/.

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