# \[ANN\] Engines 2.0 (ish)

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596>\
**Category:** Engines\
**Created:** [December 9, 2007, 11:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596 "2007-12-09T23:54:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nitr0z)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 11:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596/1 "2007-12-09T23:54:19Z")

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Hi all,

Just a quick note to let you know, should it be relevant, that we’re  
readied a new release of the Engines plugin, revamped and ready for  
Rails 2.0, and would absolutely love for you to start using it and  
sending feedback about what’s broken, what’s missing and what could be  
improved.

Grab the plugin here:

[http://svn.rails-engines.org/engines/trunk](http://svn.rails-engines.org/engines/trunk)

In order to work with the new plugin loading mechanism in Rails 2.0,  
you’ll also need to add a line to environment.rb, just after the  
require of Rails’ boot file:

require File.join(File.dirname( **FILE** ),  
‘…/vendor/plugins/engines/boot’)

After that, you’re good to go. Kick the tires, take it for a spin  
around the block, and please do let me know how it runs. There may be  
problems, we’ll try and resolve them as you guys report them back.

For anyone thinking ‘What is the Engines plugin?’: The engines plugin  
enhances Rails’ own plugin framework, making it simple to share  
controllers, helpers, models, public assets, routes and migrations in  
plugins. Find out more in the README:

[http://api.rails-engines.org/](http://api.rails-engines.org/)

I’d also like to highlight the sterling efforts of Sven F., Josh  
Ferguson, and everyone else who’s contributed ideas and patches for  
this iteration. Thanks!

James

–

- J \*  
~

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**Author:** ![nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nitr0z)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596/2 "2007-12-10T15:51:03Z")

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James A. wrote:

> Just a quick note to let you know, should it be relevant, that we’re  
> readied a new release of the Engines plugin, revamped and ready for  
> Rails 2.0, and would absolutely love for you to start using it and  
> sending feedback about what’s broken, what’s missing and what could be  
> improved.

This is wonderful. I have found the Engine plugin invaluable to my work.  
I know component-based programming has gotten a bad rep in the Rails  
world (some of it deserved after the way Java/.NET have abused the  
concept) but for some development the engines are the only way to go.  
This plugin is installed on at least 90% of my apps and glad to know it  
will be here for Rails 2.0 moving forward.

Was wondering if there are any new features or changes in the way things  
are done in this release? Or is this mostly just a Rails 2.0  
compatibility release with nothing much changes from the point of view  
of a engine developer?

Eric

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**Author:** ![nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nitr0z)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596/3 "2007-12-11T12:19:38Z")

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Good point. What is the upgrade path?

On 12/10/07, Eric A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I know component-based programming has gotten a bad rep in the Rails  
> Eric
> 
> >

–  
Nathaniel Steven Henry Brown  
604-724-6624

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**Author:** ![nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nitr0z)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596/4 "2007-12-11T14:08:24Z")

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James A. wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Just a quick note to let you know, should it be relevant, that we’re  
> readied a new release of the Engines plugin, revamped and ready for  
> Rails 2.0, and would absolutely love for you to start using it and  
> sending feedback about what’s broken, what’s missing and what could be  
> improved.

Cool!

It works again! I can’t thing about world missing engines. It would suck  
so much.

Thanks a lot! 🙂

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**Author:** ![nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nitr0z)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596/5 "2007-12-11T14:59:22Z")

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On Dec 11, 11:00 am, “Nathaniel B.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Good point. What is the upgrade path?

This is basically a Rails 2.0 compatability release, but thanks to  
some of the internal plugin refactoring in Rails itself we managed to  
slim down a whole bunch of the original “monkey patching”, which means  
that the ride should only get smoother in the future.

Some “features” have been removed, but they are almost all never  
really used - things like loading a plugin’s about.yml when the plugin  
loads. If this is actually useful, it can be re-added, but I don’t see  
the sense in adding bells and whistles just for their own sake. Please  
do try it out and give feedback about what you feel might be missing  
or broken.

The “upgrade path” is outlined in the README (See original email), but  
amounts to adding a single line in environment.rb to switch  
PluginLoader implementations to the one provided in the engines  
plugin. Everything else can be left to Rails’ default setup.

–

- J \*  
~

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nitr0z)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 4:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596/6 "2007-12-11T16:03:55Z")

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I remember looking at the project a couple of months ago and the  
project back then appeared ‘less than lively’. I am glad to see I was  
mistaken(I am, right?) as I think the lack of propper vertical  
functionality portability is holding a great framework like Rails  
back.

Good work!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nitr0z)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596/7 "2007-12-12T20:17:25Z")

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On Dec 9, 2007, at 5:53 PM, James A. wrote:

> [http://svn.rails-engines.org/engines/trunk](http://svn.rails-engines.org/engines/trunk)

Is this the new home for the plugin, or just the development home for  
the near future?

-faisal

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nitr0z)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596/8 "2007-12-12T20:28:40Z")

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On Dec 10, 2007 9:11 PM, Faisal N. Jawdat [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> On Dec 9, 2007, at 5:53 PM, James A. wrote:
> 
> > [http://svn.rails-engines.org/engines/trunk](http://svn.rails-engines.org/engines/trunk)
> 
> Is this the new home for the plugin, or just the development home for  
> the near future?

Once the plugin is production-ready, it’ll be tagged and a copy placed  
in [http://svn.rails-engines.org/plugins/engines](http://svn.rails-engines.org/plugins/engines) for the benefit of  
script/plugin. However, this location is always where development has  
taken place 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nitr0z](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nitr0z)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-engines-2-0-ish/122596/9 "2007-12-11T22:33:29Z")

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James A. wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Just a quick note to let you know, should it be relevant, that we’re  
> readied a new release of the Engines plugin, revamped and ready for  
> Rails 2.0, and would absolutely love for you to start using it and  
> sending feedback about what’s broken, what’s missing and what could be  
> improved.

OK, it seems there’s a problem.

The controllers/models in engine-based plugins are not reloaded, you  
have manually restart mongrel to get them reloaded.
