module Rails # Railtie is the core of the Rails Framework and provides all the hooks and # methods you need to link your plugin into Rails. # # What Railtie does is make every component of Rails a "plugin" and creates # an API that exposes all the powers that the builtin components need # to any plugin author. # # In fact, every major component of Rails (Action Mailer, Action Controller, # Action View, Active Record and Active Resource) are all now just plain # old plugins, so anything they can do, your plugin can do. # # Developing a plugin for Rails does not _require_ any implementation of # Railtie, there is no fixed rule, but as a guideline, if your plugin works # by just being required before Rails boots, then there is no need for you # to hook into Railtie, but if you need to interact with the Rails framework # during boot, or after boot, then Railtie is what you need to do that # interaction. # # For example, the following would need you to implement Railtie in your # plugin: # # * creating initializers (including route insertion) # * modifying the render path (think HAML et al) # * adding Rails config.* keys to the environment # * setting up a subscriber to the Rails +ActiveSupport::Notifications+ # * adding global Rake tasks into rails # * setting up a default configuration for the Application # # Railtie gives you a central place to connect into the Rails framework. If you # find yourself writing plugin code that is having to monkey patch parts of the # Rails framework to achieve something, there is probably a better, more elegant # way to do it through Railtie, if there isn't, then you have found a lacking # feature of Railtie, please lodge a ticket. # # Implementing Railtie in your plugin is by creating a class Railtie in your # application that has your plugin name and making sure that this gets loaded # durng boot time of the Rails stack. # # You can do this however you wish, but three straight forward ways are: # # == For gems or plugins that are not used outside of Rails # # * Create a Railtie subclass within your lib/my_plugin.rb file: # # # lib/my_plugin.rb # module MyPlugin # class Railtie < Rails::Railtie # end # end # # * Pass in your plugin name # # # lib/my_plugin.rb # module MyPlugin # class Railtie < Rails::Railtie # plugin_name :my_plugin # end # end # # == For gems that could be used without Rails # # * Create a file (say, lib/my_gem/railtie.rb) which contains class Railtie inheriting from # Rails::Railtie and is namespaced to your gem: # # # lib/my_gem/railtie.rb # module MyGem # class Railtie < Rails::Railtie # end # end # # * Require your own gem as well as rails in this file: # # # lib/my_gem/railtie.rb # require 'my_gem' # require 'rails' # # module MyGem # class Railtie < Rails::Railtie # end # end # # * Give your gem a unique name: # # # lib/my_gem/railtie.rb # require 'my_gem' # require 'rails' # # module MyGem # class Railtie < Rails::Railtie # plugin_name :my_gem # end # end # # * Make sure your Gem loads the railtie.rb file if Rails is loaded first, an easy # way to check is by checking for the Rails constant which will exist if Rails # has started: # # # lib/my_gem.rb # module MyGem # require 'lib/railtie' if defined?(Rails) # end # # * Or instead of doing the require automatically, you can ask your users to require # it for you in their Gemfile: # # # #{USER_RAILS_ROOT}/Gemfile # gem "my_gem", :require_as => ["my_gem", "my_gem/railtie"] # class Railtie include Initializable # Pass in the name of your plugin. This is passed in as an underscored symbol. # # module MyPlugin # class Railtie < Rails::Railtie # plugin_name :my_plugin # end # end def self.plugin_name(plugin_name = nil) @plugin_name ||= name.demodulize.underscore @plugin_name = plugin_name if plugin_name @plugin_name end def self.inherited(klass) @plugins ||= [] @plugins << klass unless klass == Plugin end def self.plugins @plugins end def self.plugin_names plugins.map { |p| p.plugin_name } end def self.config Configuration.default end def self.subscriber(subscriber) Rails::Subscriber.add(plugin_name, subscriber) end def self.rake_tasks(&blk) @rake_tasks ||= [] @rake_tasks << blk if blk @rake_tasks end def self.generators(&blk) @generators ||= [] @generators << blk if blk @generators end def rake_tasks self.class.rake_tasks end def generators self.class.generators end def load_tasks return unless rake_tasks rake_tasks.each { |blk| blk.call } end def load_generators return unless generators generators.each { |blk| blk.call } end end end