Newbie Question about script/generate

Rails
1

Hello,
I just started learning RoR myself, and I have a few newbie questions.

(1) Is it always necessary to use the “script/generate” to start an
app? Can it be created from scratch if one wanted to? (Not that I
would, but I’m trying to understand…)

(2) I followed the rails getting started guide to create a blog
successfully. Then I thought of adding a login/authentication
mechanism, and proceeded to run the “script/generate login” (after
getting login_generator.zip) on the same rail app. It messed up the
original blog, because it had file name conflicts (I think). How
would I run multiple “script/generate” on an app without messing up
the app?

Thanks!
Kumi

2

  1. It is definitely not necessary to use “script/generate” but it can
    be very helpful when you’re just starting out. The variants on
    generate (run “script/generate --help” and check out the installed
    generators) can give you a good idea on how the different MVC
    components hang together.

  2. Yes, well there seems to be a growing dissatisfaction with plugins
    that rely on generate to build your app. My guess is that your
    experience is part of the reason. Configuration management (svn or
    git) can be invaluable here. You really want to be able to back out
    the recent damage on occasion.

As far as running multiple generates you need to understand what’s
going on with the different generators, i.e.:

generate model User name:string profile:text
generate scaffold User name:string profile:text

both create a user.rb model and migration but scaffold also builds the
controller and views as well as adding routes.

You need to understand what is created when you issue the generate
command and the best way I’ve found is to run it and study the
results.

3

Thanks very much for this clarification. You’re right, I’m usually
coding things myself and not used to the concept of having things
generated for me. I do have git, so I was able to back out. It
sounds like the best way for me is to learn what a lot of plugins do
when generated, and combine those myself without using the generate.
Just what you suggested… :slight_smile: Thanks!!

4

Glad I could help.