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Rails Application Templates
===========================
Application templates are simple Ruby files containing DSL for adding gems/initializers etc. to your freshly created Rails project or an existing Rails project.
After reading this guide, you will know:
* How to use templates to generate/customize Rails applications.
* How to write your own reusable application templates using the Rails template API.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Usage
-----
To apply a template, you need to provide the Rails generator with the location of the template you wish to apply using the -m option. This can either be a path to a file or a URL.
```bash
$ rails new blog -m ~/template.rb
$ rails new blog -m http://example.com/template.rb
```
You can use the rake task `rails:template` to apply templates to an existing Rails application. The location of the template needs to be passed in to an environment variable named LOCATION. Again, this can either be path to a file or a URL.
```bash
$ bin/rake rails:template LOCATION=~/template.rb
$ bin/rake rails:template LOCATION=http://example.com/template.rb
```
Template API
------------
The Rails templates API is easy to understand. Here's an example of a typical Rails template:
```ruby
# template.rb
generate(:scaffold, "person name:string")
route "root to: 'people#index'"
rake("db:migrate")
after_bundle do
git :init
git add: "."
git commit: %Q{ -m 'Initial commit' }
end
```
The following sections outline the primary methods provided by the API:
### gem(*args)
Adds a `gem` entry for the supplied gem to the generated application's `Gemfile`.
For example, if your application depends on the gems `bj` and `nokogiri`:
```ruby
gem "bj"
gem "nokogiri"
```
Please note that this will NOT install the gems for you and you will have to run `bundle install` to do that.
```bash
bundle install
```
### gem_group(*names, &block)
Wraps gem entries inside a group.
For example, if you want to load `rspec-rails` only in the `development` and `test` groups:
```ruby
gem_group :development, :test do
gem "rspec-rails"
end
```
### add_source(source, options = {})
Adds the given source to the generated application's `Gemfile`.
For example, if you need to source a gem from `"http://code.whytheluckystiff.net"`:
```ruby
add_source "http://code.whytheluckystiff.net"
```
### environment/application(data=nil, options={}, &block)
Adds a line inside the `Application` class for `config/application.rb`.
If `options[:env]` is specified, the line is appended to the corresponding file in `config/environments`.
```ruby
environment 'config.action_mailer.default_url_options = {host: "http://yourwebsite.example.com"}', env: 'production'
```
A block can be used in place of the `data` argument.
### vendor/lib/file/initializer(filename, data = nil, &block)
Adds an initializer to the generated application's `config/initializers` directory.
Let's say you like using `Object#not_nil?` and `Object#not_blank?`:
```ruby
initializer 'bloatlol.rb', <<-CODE
class Object
def not_nil?
!nil?
end
def not_blank?
!blank?
end
end
CODE
```
Similarly, `lib()` creates a file in the `lib/` directory and `vendor()` creates a file in the `vendor/` directory.
There is even `file()`, which accepts a relative path from `Rails.root` and creates all the directories/files needed:
```ruby
file 'app/components/foo.rb', <<-CODE
class Foo
end
CODE
```
That'll create the `app/components` directory and put `foo.rb` in there.
### rakefile(filename, data = nil, &block)
Creates a new rake file under `lib/tasks` with the supplied tasks:
```ruby
rakefile("bootstrap.rake") do
<<-TASK
namespace :boot do
task :strap do
puts "i like boots!"
end
end
TASK
end
```
The above creates `lib/tasks/bootstrap.rake` with a `boot:strap` rake task.
### generate(what, *args)
Runs the supplied rails generator with given arguments.
```ruby
generate(:scaffold, "person", "name:string", "address:text", "age:number")
```
### run(command)
Executes an arbitrary command. Just like the backticks. Let's say you want to remove the `README.rdoc` file:
```ruby
run "rm README.rdoc"
```
### rake(command, options = {})
Runs the supplied rake tasks in the Rails application. Let's say you want to migrate the database:
```ruby
rake "db:migrate"
```
You can also run rake tasks with a different Rails environment:
```ruby
rake "db:migrate", env: 'production'
```
### route(routing_code)
Adds a routing entry to the `config/routes.rb` file. In the steps above, we generated a person scaffold and also removed `README.rdoc`. Now, to make `PeopleController#index` the default page for the application:
```ruby
route "root to: 'person#index'"
```
### inside(dir)
Enables you to run a command from the given directory. For example, if you have a copy of edge rails that you wish to symlink from your new apps, you can do this:
```ruby
inside('vendor') do
run "ln -s ~/commit-rails/rails rails"
end
```
### ask(question)
`ask()` gives you a chance to get some feedback from the user and use it in your templates. Let's say you want your user to name the new shiny library you're adding:
```ruby
lib_name = ask("What do you want to call the shiny library ?")
lib_name << ".rb" unless lib_name.index(".rb")
lib lib_name, <<-CODE
class Shiny
end
CODE
```
### yes?(question) or no?(question)
These methods let you ask questions from templates and decide the flow based on the user's answer. Let's say you want to freeze rails only if the user wants to:
```ruby
rake("rails:freeze:gems") if yes?("Freeze rails gems?")
# no?(question) acts just the opposite.
```
### git(:command)
Rails templates let you run any git command:
```ruby
git :init
git add: "."
git commit: "-a -m 'Initial commit'"
```
### after_bundle(&block)
Registers a callback to be executed after the gems are bundled and binstubs
are generated. Useful for all generated files to version control:
```ruby
after_bundle do
git :init
git add: '.'
git commit: "-a -m 'Initial commit'"
end
```
The callbacks gets executed even if `--skip-bundle` and/or `--skip-spring` has
been passed.
Advanced Usage
--------------
The application template is evaluated in the context of a
`Rails::Generators::AppGenerator` instance. It uses the `apply` action
provided by
[Thor](https://github.com/erikhuda/thor/blob/master/lib/thor/actions.rb#L207).
This means you can extend and change the instance to match your needs.
For example by overwriting the `source_paths` method to contain the
location of your template. Now methods like `copy_file` will accept
relative paths to your template's location.
```ruby
def source_paths
[File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__))]
end
```
