# Plugins within plugins

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/plugins-within-plugins/143396>\
**Category:** Engines\
**Created:** [July 18, 2008, 1:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/plugins-within-plugins/143396 "2008-07-18T01:59:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Miles\_G](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Miles\_G](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Miles_G)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2008, 1:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/plugins-within-plugins/143396/1 "2008-07-18T01:59:22Z")

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can a plugin have a vendor/plugins directory within it and have that  
automatically used?

I’m wondering if I have plugin A that depends on plugin B/C if I have to  
install B/C in every project that uses A or if I can just install it  
within  
A once and then only install A in my projects that use A.

Thanks

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**Author:** ![Miles\_G](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Miles\_G](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Miles_G)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2008, 9:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/plugins-within-plugins/143396/2 "2008-07-18T09:09:52Z")

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The engines plugin won’t do anything to load a plugin containing a  
vendor/plugin directory, but it should be relatively trivial to create  
such a directory, and then add the plugin lib dirs to the load path  
and require the necessary files within the ‘top-level’ plugin’s  
init.rb

HTH,

James

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**Author:** ![Miles\_G](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Miles\_G](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Miles_G)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2008, 9:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/plugins-within-plugins/143396/3 "2008-07-18T09:22:10Z")

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Rails implements locating plugins as a strategy:

[http://github.com/rails/rails/tree/master/railties/lib/rails/plugin/locator.rb](http://github.com/rails/rails/tree/master/railties/lib/rails/plugin/locator.rb)

So, this seems to be a natural place to hook in.

Although I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, really 🙂

On 18.07.2008, at 09:09, James A. wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 12:58 AM, Miles G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)
> 
> > Thanks
> 
> –
> 
> - J \*  
> ~
> 
> * * *
> 
> Engine-Users mailing list  
> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
> [http://lists.rails-engines.org/listinfo.cgi/engine-users-rails-engines.org](http://lists.rails-engines.org/listinfo.cgi/engine-users-rails-engines.org)

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