# Authlogic -- gem or plugin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [October 18, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/authlogic-gem-or-plugin/177476 "2009-10-18T18:45:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/34f0e0/32.png) [@Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Hassan_S)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/authlogic-gem-or-plugin/177476/1 "2009-10-18T18:45:35Z")
Trying out Authlogic for the first time – somewhere, can’t find it now of course 🙂 I saw a recommendation to use the plugin form, but the Ryan B. railscast recommends the gem (without explanation). Comments or recommendations? ## TIA, Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid twitter: @hassan ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/34f0e0/32.png) [@Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Hassan_S)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/authlogic-gem-or-plugin/177476/2 "2009-10-19T19:37:07Z")
> Trying out Authlogic for the first time – somewhere, can’t find it > now > of course 🙂 I saw a recommendation to use the plugin form, but the > Ryan B. railscast recommends the gem (without explanation). I’m using it as a plugin and it’s working fine for me… ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/34f0e0/32.png) [@Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Hassan_S)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/authlogic-gem-or-plugin/177476/3 "2009-10-19T19:49:24Z")
I’m using the gem without issues… If you use the GEM you will get a gem version installed so that you can stay consistent between environments (dev, test, pre-prod, prod… ) Iif you want the latest and greatest you need to use the plugin… ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/34f0e0/32.png) [@Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Hassan_S)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/authlogic-gem-or-plugin/177476/4 "2009-10-19T19:53:30Z")
The argument for the gem is that any improvements in security/bug fixes will be automatically included in your application if you continue to update your gems. The argument for the plugin is any changes in the gem won’t break your code that was already working if you don’t update your plugin. I would use the updating gem in development. And a frozen plugin in deployed app. On Oct 18, 1:43 pm, Hassan S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/34f0e0/32.png) [@Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Hassan_S)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/authlogic-gem-or-plugin/177476/5 "2009-10-19T19:54:09Z")
Hassan S. wrote: > Trying out Authlogic for the first time – somewhere, can’t find it now > of course 🙂 I saw a recommendation to use the plugin form, but the > Ryan B. railscast recommends the gem (without explanation). > > Comments or recommendations? I believe that Ryan tends to prefer using gem dependencies instead of plugins when possible. This is also my own preference. I would guess that there is no further explanation provided because it seems to depend upon personal preference. I tend to prefer managing shared libraries outside of my application. I feel it eases management of shared libraries and makes upgrading my applications to use the newer version easier. Plus it also reduces the amount of code that lives inside my project (and hence my version control system). I don’t really see the necessity to version control shared library code. It is also my understanding that Rails 3 will contain some improvements to the way gem dependencies are currently handled. ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/34f0e0/32.png) [@Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Hassan_S)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/authlogic-gem-or-plugin/177476/6 "2009-10-19T20:14:34Z")
I’ve had projects break before when I’ve updated plugins (my own and others’). It’s a little more clear what version of a gem you have installed versus a plugin, which may or may not be the most recent revision. On Oct 19, 10:54 am, Robert W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/34f0e0/32.png) [@Hassan\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Hassan_S)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/authlogic-gem-or-plugin/177476/7 "2009-10-19T20:18:05Z")
On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 10:51 AM, Aaron B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > The argument for the gem is that any improvements in security/bug > fixes will be automatically included in your application if you > continue to update your gems. The argument for the plugin is any > changes in the gem won’t break your code that was already working if > you don’t update your plugin. This isn’t 100% true because I can call-out the version to use within my environment.rb file. For example, config.gem “sqlite3-ruby”, :lib =\> “sqlite3”, :version =\> “1.2.5” Now, I can ‘gem update’ without causing issues for my application. The bundler gem will replace the above in Rails 3. For now, this has worked great in development and production. -Conrad