Is there any way to package your code by feature in rails? I would like to structure my project so that each feature has its controllers, jobs, mailers, layouts and helpers in its own folder. e.g.
app
----user
--------jobs
--------controllers
--------mailers
--------layouts
--------helpers
----company
--------jobs
--------controllers
--------mailers
--------layouts
--------helpers
where user and company are seperate features.
I've done this in my app and its pretty easy.
You create your file structure the way you want it and then you just put config.autoload_paths += %W(#{config.root}/app/user/jobs) or whatever other subdirectory you want into your application.rb folder.
People might say this is not the rails way but I feel your pain when your project gets really big and hard to navigate.
Checkout Trailblazer gem. It is an extension on the basic MVC pattern.
Related
When using Rails to only write an API, the term "app" seems less appropriate than something like "api". Is it possible to configure Rails to use a different folder besides "app" to load controllers, models, etc.? Preferably, I'd like my frontend code(outside the Rails asset pipeline) to live in "app", so creating a symlink isn't a preferable solution.
You can probably get it working by adding some hacks and fixes here and there. And then it will break again with the next gem/tool/IDE/plugin/...
Rails is strongly based on conventions, the app directory is one of them. Leaving as it is will save you lots of troubles.
Every time I create a new Rails application, and for the admin part, I copy the layout and assets from another project to the new project.
I think it's obvious how many problems this approach causes. I am thinking about organizing my layout, and assets in a proper way.
What I have in mind is creating a gem and putting everything in that gem. But before I try that, I wonder if there is a better way for organizing these files?
Gem is good if you want to share codes among apps.
If, like your case, the shared parts have routes/views, an engine would be better suited, which is also a kind of gem. You can check the guide for details: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/engines.html
There's every chance I've approached this entirely in the wrong way which might be why I'm struggling to find an answer, as is typically the way with Rails.
For clarity, I'm referring to the -m option of "rails new", eg.
rails new [new-project] -m [this is where my template goes]
I've created a project/application template to speed up the creation of a specific project type, with the view that further projects/products will have their own template also.
The template adds in the relevant gems and does a bit of housework to tidy up the output of the gem installation (moving JS/CSS files to /vendors, for example) as well as copying over a generator that gives the option to expand the project further.
I'm struggling to understand if there is a way to test that the project template is working as expected and copying the correct files.
Have I approached this in the correct manner, and is there a way to test project/application templates?
Edit - Further research is suggesting that an Engine may be a better solution. Is that accurate?
A Rails Engine is a way to package some application or application subset so that it is easy to share with other applications. Basically, if you have some models and controllers that can be shared by multiple applications, you can use an Engine. This sounds a lot like what you described as a project template. Engines can be packaged as gems, gems can automatically behave as Engines, include rake tasks, hook into Rails initialization, and more, so why not take advantage of Other People's Work if you can?
I am trying to use Spree with my RoR application. Ok, I do follow all those guides and FAQs on official website when I want to customize something. That's ok and no problem with it. One question, to which I could not find a clue -- how is that possible, that there is nothing in apps/view, apps/models folders, but it's still working? I mean, yes, I can create something in these folders and redefine the behavior of my views (actually, this is one of the ways of customization), but I really want to understand the internals. I am pretty new to Rails and got used to classic app folder structure.
what you are wondering about is the magic of Rails Engines.
Ruby on Rails allows you to define Engines (your app is one too) and when it looks for views/controllers/etc.. all mounted engines are part of the search path.
So the view is inside the Spree gem, not visible to you - but it still looks in there.
If you put something in your view folder with the same name, it will take precedence over the views in the Rails engine you have in the Gem.
Here is a good guide on how Engines work in Rails:
http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/engines.html
One good example of these Engines is the jQuery-rails Gem you probably use inside your Application.
It has no code at all (except for some fallbacks for Rails 3.0 and below that don't have an asset pipeline), but the jQuery.js file in the app/assets/javascripts folder. And since the engine is in the load path you can require the asset that's in there..
The engine itself has the same folder structure as your app (app/views, app/controllers ...)
You can look at the internal structure of Spree here: https://github.com/spree/spree/tree/master/core/app
I am creating a plugin which involves a controller, model & views. while i can move these files from the vendor/plugin directory to app/controllers, models & views respectively.
now i can run my controller & model just by copying them in lib folder of vendor/plugins/plugin_name/lib and they are directly accessible, but my views are not initialized from there, so i need a technique which can make my views in vendor/plugins/plugin_name/lib/views accessible to rails framework without copying.
i am trying to add them to actionview, but not sure how to do that.
please guide me on this.
There's ways you can add your plugin's views directory to the "search path" for ActionView, but the easiest way to handle all this is to just use something like the Rails Engines plugin to do all the hard work for you.
If you're looking to add models, views and controllers via a plugin, take a look at Desert: http://github.com/pivotal/desert. I'm not too keen on this approach, but Desert seems to work for people who like it.