# How do I write a generator? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [January 6, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-write-a-generator/59889 "2006-01-06T22:49:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brucebalmer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-write-a-generator/59889/1 "2006-01-06T22:49:11Z")
I’d like to take some advice and write a generator to change the scaffold.css. How do I do that? I looked on the wiki and googled it but have not found anything yet. Any help would be much appreciated. bruce ---
**Author:** ![brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brucebalmer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-write-a-generator/59889/2 "2006-01-06T23:10:15Z")
On Jan 6, 2006, at 1:45 PM, Bruce B. wrote: > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) Bruce- ``` There isn't a whole lot of documentation on how to write a generator ``` that I have seen. You are better off dissecting one yourself. Here is a very simple one for you to play with that I wrote. Its just a lighttpd.conf file generator for either scgi or fcgi configuration generation. But it ought to show you how to build a basic generator so you can look at some more complex oones and see whats going on. Cheers- -Ezra Z. Yakima Herald-Republic WebMaster [http://yakimaherald.com](http://yakimaherald.com) 509-577-7732 removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brucebalmer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 11:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-write-a-generator/59889/3 "2006-01-06T23:22:41Z")
bruce balmer wrote: > I’d like to take some advice and write a generator to change the > scaffold.css. How do I do that? I looked on the wiki and googled it > but have not found anything yet. > > Any help would be much appreciated. > > bruce I would just reverse engineer the standard scaffold generator, there are probably big chunks of text in it that you can just replace. ---
**Author:** ![brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brucebalmer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-write-a-generator/59889/4 "2006-01-06T23:28:18Z")
On Jan 6, 2006, at 2:03 PM, Ezra Z. wrote: > > * * * > > wrote. Its just a lighttpd.conf file generator for either scgi or > fcgi configuration generation. But it ought to show you how to > build a basic generator so you can look at some more complex oones > and see whats going on. Sorry forgot to paste the link: [http://brainspl.at/files/lighttpd.tar.gz](http://brainspl.at/files/lighttpd.tar.gz) Cheers- -Ezra Z. Yakima Herald-Republic WebMaster [http://yakimaherald.com](http://yakimaherald.com) 509-577-7732 removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brucebalmer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 12:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-write-a-generator/59889/5 "2006-01-07T00:01:20Z")
Ezra: thanks for sending that. I took a quick look at it. I would love to find some good documentation. I think that what may be obvious to you is not YET obvious to me. Maybe I could start with altering the template the generator uses and keep a copy somewhere so that I can put it back each time I upgrade rails. Where could I find that file. Two people have given me answers on its location but I can find nothing similar to the paths they give me. I am on OS X using Locomotive. (which I love, by the way) bruce ---
**Author:** ![brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brucebalmer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-write-a-generator/59889/6 "2006-01-06T23:58:20Z")
Kevin: thanks, Happy to do that if I could ever find out where it is so I could look at the file. Also, I am using Locomotive. Not sure if that complicates things re finding these files. Do you know where the file lives? I tried which rails\_generator and got nothing back. tia. bruce ---
**Author:** ![brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brucebalmer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-write-a-generator/59889/7 "2006-01-07T02:10:48Z")
Bruce- ``` I am attaching a copy of the scaffolding generator in its entirety ``` from rails1.0 on osx. You can edit a copy to keep even through rails version upgrades by putting in a dir called ~/.rails/generators/ myscaffold . So you can take the one I am sending you and edit the templates and css however you like and then run script/generate myscaffold Foo B. just like a normal scaffold to get your personalized version instead. ``` When you use locomotive it has its own self contained gems and so if ``` you want to find the rails generators in the locomotive bundle you will need to open your terminal shell from inside of locomotive becasue it changes you $PATH in order to keep itself contained. I don’t know offhand what the path to the generators are in locomotive. Hope that gets you going. Cheers- -Ezra ---
**Author:** ![brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brucebalmer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-write-a-generator/59889/8 "2006-01-07T01:04:41Z")
[http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/UnderstandingGenerators](http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/UnderstandingGenerators) I used that page as a reference when writing my OpenIDLoginGenerator. Hope that helps, Brian E. [http://openidenabled.com/openid/libraries/ruby](http://openidenabled.com/openid/libraries/ruby) ---
**Author:** ![brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@brucebalmer](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brucebalmer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 6:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-write-a-generator/59889/9 "2006-01-07T06:59:20Z")
Ezra: Thanks, very much. bruce