Creating a rails plugin

I am trying to develop a rails plugin. I am referring to instructions
on: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/creating_plugins.html
I am quite confused about where should I start.

  1. If I need to add MVC to my plugin, then do I need to follow
    http://guides.rubyonrails.org/creating_ … test_setup ? I am not really
    extending core classes or adding new method to ActiveRecord.

  2. How do I install the generated plugin using ‘script/plugin install
    location’? Should one copy the entire ‘vendor/plugins/yaffle’ directory
    somewhere and give its path in the install location field?


Amita.

Corrected URL link.

Amita B. wrote:

I am trying to develop a rails plugin. I am referring to instructions
on: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/creating_plugins.html
I am quite confused about where should I start.

  1. If I need to add MVC to my plugin, then do I need to follow
    http://guides.rubyonrails.org/creating_ … test_setup ? I am not really
    extending core classes or adding new method to ActiveRecord.

  2. How do I install the generated plugin using ‘script/plugin install
    location’? Should one copy the entire ‘vendor/plugins/yaffle’ directory
    somewhere and give its path in the install location field?


Amita.

  1. If I need to add MVC to my plugin, then do I need to follow
    http://guides.rubyonrails.org/creating_plugins.html#_tests . test_setup
    ? I am not really extending core classes or adding new method to
    ActiveRecord.

Corrected URL link.

I have a working rails application. I would like to move the user
management part of the application into a plugin structure (make a
plugin for user management). So that I don’t have to repeat the same for
another application with similar user management requirements.

So I am trying to make a plugin from the Model, View, and Controller of
this user management part of my application.

Amita.

Maurício Linhares wrote:

What do you mean by “i need to add MVC”?

What do you want your plugin to do?

Maur�cio Linhares
http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/ (pt-br) | http://blog.codevader.com/
(en)

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 12:56 PM, Amita B.

What do you mean by “i need to add MVC”?

What do you want your plugin to do?

Maurício Linhares
http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/ (pt-br) | http://blog.codevader.com/
(en)

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 12:56 PM, Amita B.

Hi Amita,

Not really sure if you still need it, but a good source of ideas is
the Translate plugin (
http://github.com/newsdesk/translate/tree/master ). They do exactly
what you’re looking for and it works like a charm, i bet you can get
some ideas to get your code working.

Maurício Linhares
http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/ (pt-br) | http://blog.codevader.com/
(en)

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 2:18 PM, Amita B.

Thanks Maurício for sharing the resources…

I have already made some progress, but now stuck with another problem
related to REST and Ajax.updater (to automatically populate timezones
depending on U.S.A. state selected).

Amita

Linhares wrote:

Hi Amita,

Not really sure if you still need it, but a good source of ideas is
the Translate plugin (
http://github.com/newsdesk/translate/tree/master ). They do exactly
what you’re looking for and it works like a charm, i bet you can get
some ideas to get your code working.

Maurício Linhares
http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/ (pt-br) | http://blog.codevader.com/
(en)

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 2:18 PM, Amita B.

And what`s the problem?

Doing it is quite straightforward after you have the list of timezones
based on states :slight_smile:

Maurício Linhares
http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/ (pt-br) | http://blog.codevader.com/
(en)

On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 10:39 PM, Amita B.

What youre looking for is a way to configure your plugin, the simplest way to do it is just let the user reopen your classes and change what is need in a initialization file. You could also create a configuration file and have your plugin to load it and configure the pieces that are "configurable", like the model thats going to be used
(in your case, the photos our albuns).

Also, model plugins are usually small and very specific in what they
do, your plugin seems to do a lot and this isn’t really common when
dealing with plugins. Some plugins, like restful_auth, don’t even use
models, but contain modules that are included in your models, this is
better `cos it’s easier for someone using your plugin to override your
behaviour.

You should definitely take a look at the Rails Plugins patterns PDF →
http://peepcode.com/products/rails-2-plugin-patterns

Maurício Linhares
http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/ (pt-br) | http://blog.codevader.com/
(en)

On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 8:00 PM, Amita B.

My current application is for picture albums. These picture albums are
oraganized/created as per the location. I am just doing it for my
learning purpose. I am trying to make a user management plugin for it.
The basic application worked with no plugin is working fine.

Initially I had models like this:

class Album < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_presence_of :title, :state_id
validates_uniqueness_of :title
has_many :photos
belongs_to :state
end

class Photo < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :album
end

class State < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_presence_of :name, :country_id
has_many :albums
belongs_to :country
has_many :users
end

class Country < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_presence_of :name
validates_uniqueness_of :name
has_many :states
end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_presence_of :username, :password_hash, :password_salt,
:role_id
validates_uniqueness_of :username
belongs_to :state
belongs_to :role
before_destroy :dont_delete_admin
end

class Role < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_presence_of :name
validates_uniqueness_of :name
before_destroy :dont_destroy_admin
has_many :users
end

Now for making a plugin I placed my user, role, state, country model in
the vendor/plugins/user_test/lib/app/models directory. However, placing
entire model class in the plugins/models directory may not work. Since
tomorrow the application could be for songs related to particular
location. So for the state model placing this line
plugins/models/state.rb- ‘has_many albums’ does not make any sense.

So can I place part of my model definition in the plugin and then one
can modify the albums and state models. This is not a good idea
though… Basically I don’t know how should I proceed given this
situation. Any help?

Amita.

Maurício Linhares wrote:

And what`s the problem?

Doing it is quite straightforward after you have the list of timezones
based on states :slight_smile:

Maur�cio Linhares
http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/ (pt-br) | http://blog.codevader.com/
(en)

On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 10:39 PM, Amita B.

Usually, plugins do it by using polymorphic associations, so they
don’t need to know in advance the real class that’s going to be
referenced.

Maurício Linhares
http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/ (pt-br) | http://blog.codevader.com/
(en)

On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 1:21 AM, Amita B.

I hope this book will help you create a plugin.

http://rapidshare.com/files/204193424/Addison-Wesley-Extending_Rails_Beyond_the_Core.chm.html
Best regards
Rob.

Thanks for the link… I am going through the guide.
However, I am still wondering how can I include associations (has_many
and belongs_to methods) in my plugin. Because I do not know what will be
the model/table name used by user to associate my plugin’s model to…

e.g.: for one application it could be user- :has_many photos or for
another application- user :has_many songs .

Thanks,
Amita.

Maurício Linhares wrote:

What youre looking for is a way to configure your plugin, the simplest way to do it is just let the user reopen your classes and change what is need in a initialization file. You could also create a configuration file and have your plugin to load it and configure the pieces that are "configurable", like the model thats going to be used
(in your case, the photos our albuns).

Also, model plugins are usually small and very specific in what they
do, your plugin seems to do a lot and this isn’t really common when
dealing with plugins. Some plugins, like restful_auth, don’t even use
models, but contain modules that are included in your models, this is
better `cos it’s easier for someone using your plugin to override your
behaviour.

You should definitely take a look at the Rails Plugins patterns PDF →
http://peepcode.com/products/rails-2-plugin-patterns

Maurício Linhares
http://alinhavado.wordpress.com/ (pt-br) | http://blog.codevader.com/
(en)

On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 8:00 PM, Amita B.