# Load plugins from an external folder

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/load-plugins-from-an-external-folder/140991>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [June 20, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/load-plugins-from-an-external-folder/140991 "2008-06-20T15:42:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jney](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jney](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jney)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/load-plugins-from-an-external-folder/140991/1 "2008-06-20T15:42:38Z")

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How to load plugins which aren’t in the folder vendor/plugins (in my  
case in another rails project)

regards

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**Author:** ![jney](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jney](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jney)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 4:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/load-plugins-from-an-external-folder/140991/2 "2008-06-20T16:22:13Z")

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i did it in that way, adding this to environment.rb :

plug\_dir = Dir.new("#{RAILS\_ROOT}/…/other\_rails\_dir/vendor/plugins")  
plug\_dir.entries.each do |plug|  
%w(. …).include?(plug) && next  
path = File.join(plug\_dir.path, plug)  
if(File.directory?(path))  
$: \<\< File.join(path, ‘lib’)  
require File.join(path, ‘init’)  
end  
end

someone has a simplier solution?

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**Author:** ![jney](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jney](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jney)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/load-plugins-from-an-external-folder/140991/3 "2008-06-20T19:44:30Z")

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not sure about plugins… but gems can be accessed using following:

ENV[‘GEM\_HOME’]=’/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8’  
ENV[‘GEM\_PATH’]=’/home/ckh/gems’  
in dispatch.fcgi

ENV[‘GEM\_HOME’] is default gem path and second option is for custom  
one…

you can try same for plugins… but not 100% sure

Ajit

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**Author:** ![jney](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jney](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jney)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/load-plugins-from-an-external-folder/140991/4 "2008-06-20T22:51:08Z")

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Jean-sébastien Jney wrote:

> How to load plugins which aren’t in the folder vendor/plugins (in my  
> case in another rails project)
> 
> regards

try

environment.rb

Rails::Initializer.run do |config|  
config.plugin\_paths += [“#{RAILS\_ROOT}/other/path/to/plugins”]  
end

see freddy cheung’s blog post about it

[http://www.texperts.com/2007/06/21/on-sharing-code-between-rails-apps/](http://www.texperts.com/2007/06/21/on-sharing-code-between-rails-apps/)

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**Author:** ![jney](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jney](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jney)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/load-plugins-from-an-external-folder/140991/5 "2008-06-21T19:18:22Z")

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On Jun 20, 9:51 pm, Matthew R. Jacobs \<rails-mailing-l…@andreas-  
[s.net](http://s.net)\> wrote:

> see freddy cheung’s blog post about it
> 
> [钛刻专家——官网](http://www.texperts.com/2007/06/21/on-sharing-code-between-rails-apps/)

damn you matthew, pimping my own blog posts before I get round to  
it ! 🙂

Fred