I have notice that there are many files created by generators (not only scaffold, but rails generate in general) that I don't use.
So I came up with the following questions (about best practices):
Do you use generators or it is preferable to create by hand only files you need?
If you use generators, do you keep all generated files?
You can use generators specifically to help you build individual files. For instance, you could use
rails g model Video title:string link:string
to create a model file with those as attributes, but you don't need to use scaffolding to generate everything (if that's what you're referring to)
Personally I like to use a combination -- it really depends on the project. But I'd tell you not to have extra files that you aren't using, so definitely delete the ones you aren't using (or don't plan to use).
Hope this helps.
i do use the generators and just delete the files. It is probably because I am lazy but I find this easier.
Especially with models, because it includes the migration.
Honestly it all comes down to just preference. Just don't scaffold...
Related
I am working on a project where the current developers have put their "Plain Old Ruby Objects" in the models directory of our Rails app.
I have seen most examples online where the PORO files go inside lib instead, but some say models.
Is there even a logical / specific reason why people put them in the models directory over the lib directory?
"Idiomatically" the models directory intended for code used to hold state. Most of the time this would be ActiveRecord subclasses corresponding to database tables. However frequently people put other stuff in the models directory. One thing often seen are code dropped here in order to take advantage of auto-reloading. (the lib dir doesn't normally auto-reload)
Based on the Getting Started Rails guide, the app/models/ directory is pretty much anything, whereas lib/ is for modules that are used across the entire app (e.g. extensions).
As #seand said, yes, one advantage is that the app/models/ directory automatically reloads, but I tend to think of it as any class that "interacts with other classes" should live in app/models/, with the only exception being a service class (which I tend to think of as "a class which manipulates the state of another class"), which I tend to put into app/services/.
I know a lot of developers would disagree with me - many I've talked to even create a separate directory namespaced to their app (e.g. if your app is named "MyBlog", they would create an app/myblog directory for any object not explicitly backed by the database, but not a module or a service class either.
That said, I think ultimately it boils down to a) personal preference and b) where you feel is best to place the PORO with respect to your app.
There is no hard and fast rule on where to put POROs. The rails community has been hashing this out for a while now. At one point the convention was to put stuff in the concerns directory but that seems to have fallen out of favor with some folks.
One rule of thumb for the difference between /lib and app/{blah} is that code in the /lib folder is code that you presumably can reuse across several projects e.g. general purpose class or utilities. for example if you have some custom monkey patches to core ruby or rails classes that you will use in multiple projects, a good place to but them would be in the lib folder. Anything in app/{blah} should pertain specifically to current project.
One way to think of lib folder is as the poor cousin of plugins and gems.
Just my 2 cents on the subject
There are these railscasts.
http://railscasts.com/episodes/218-making-generators-in-rails-3 With this one you find out how
to create a stylesheets and scaffold generator.
http://railscasts.com/episodes/216-generators-in-rails-3 With this one you find out how to add some files to modify the scaffolding views.
I want to do a mix of the two. I would like to create a generator that also creates scaffolding views. Kinda like Ryan Bates nifty generators or web_app_theme gem (https://github.com/pilu/web-app-theme). I have been searching for a tutorial or some information to point me in the right direction but I can't find exactly what I'm looking for.
I know I'm close. I already know how to create a generator with Railcast 218 but now, how can I make it create view files too?
I would like to run a command like this...
rails g my_scaffold_generator Post title:string body:text
This may well be too late to help, but as I found this while Googling for the same info...
It seems to me that the best approach, at least for learning the ropes, is to duplicate and then alter the existing scaffold generator.
So the first thing that tripped me up is finding the default templates, which do not live in your rails-3.2.0 directory (or whatever version you are on), but in railties-3.2.0. So for my RVM-based installation they were at:
/Users/leo/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194#gemset/gems/railties-3.2.0/lib/rails/generators/
[Note: your gems directory could be somewhere else entirely, use $> gem environment to find your gem paths]
In here is erb/scaffold/templates/ which has the files you'd expect (new.html.erb, _form.html.erb etc).
You can copy these files to your app's root, into lib/templates/erb/scaffold/ and they will be used instead of the default ones.
If you want to use these in a custom generator, there are two approaches:
1) Use hook_for to call the regular ERB scaffold generator from your generator.
2) Move/process the templates inside your own custom generator, using copy_file and similar methods in Thor to move them into place.
There is a decent Rails Guide on this, although I found I didn't really get it until I started digging around in .../railties-3.2.0/lib/rails/generators/... and looking at how the defaults are structured.
I used generate scaffold to setup the basic RESTful actions however I want to extend the actions to include something like 'purchase'. Is there a way to use the command line to generate the boilerplate (stub functions in controller file and updated route file?)?
As far as I can tell generate controller either wipes or leaves the existing file - there's no nice way to merge them.
Not by default. However, realize that in Rails 3, customizing generators isn't terribly difficult. See Creating and Customizing Rails Generators & Templates, and Bates' screencast on Generators in Rails 3.
Regarding your second "question," that's right -- the file is either replaced or overwritten.
I'm a happy user of RoR but have one complaint. When I do script/generate scaffold it automatically generates all my files and places them in their proper folders. However, all the different scaffolds I've created name their view files the same.
I have a bunch of index.html.erb view files and when I have them open in my text editor, it's almost impossible to tell what controller they're related to.
I'd like to change the default naming scheme of the scaffold command to name the individual files to contain their view folder name. So, instead of index.html.erb, use index.home.html.
Is there a way to do this, or am I stuck? What solutions to the multiple files with the same name problem have you Rails developers discovered?
Thanks!
You're going to be fighting the Rails' conventions by going down that path and Rails works best when you work with it rather than against it. A core part of the philosophy of Rails is that there are a set of conventions that once learned make it easy to find your way around any Rails application.
Instead of trying to redefine how Rails works, I would recommend taking advantage of the features offered by your text editor or IDE for quickly navigating to the correct view template. For example, the Rails bundle within TextMate on the Mac lets you quickly open the view file associated with a particular model and there's a plugin for Vim that provides an equivalent feature.
What changes do you need to make to a Rails project to configure blueprintcss as the default stylesheet to be used when you generate scaffolding instead of scaffold.css?
I'd recommend writing your own generator, but if you want to alter the default you can:
1 - For a single app: Freeze rails and change the stylesheet the scaffold generator uses.
railsapp/vendor/rails/railties/lib/rails_generators/generators/components/scaffold/templates/style.css
2 - For all apps: Change the same style.css file in your systems rails installation.
Substitute your own scaffolding generation code. Instructions are here (with the caveat that they may be out of date).
An easier alternative may be to write a Rake action to do textual substitution in the (normally) generated source.
Look into Rails Templates.
You can write one to do much more than replace the css in a rails app. YOu can make it install gems, freeze rails, all kinds of things. Take a look at http://youvegotrails.com for an idea of what you can do.