The

Even-Darker Art
of

Rails Engines
@lazyatom
github.com/lazyatom/engines
Rails 2.3
history
November 2005
it’s distracting!
reuse is overrated!
 Evil! Evil!
Evil!

Evil!

Evil! Evil!
Evil!

Evil! Shit!
eek!
appable_plugins
desert
merb slices?
engines
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app/controllers/
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 9"-7"1$J%--
won’t load from your plugin
Ticket #1905
config/routes.rb
*$+,#-&23-6#,&!3+'(%.!)

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top precedence
in your plugin:
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in your app:
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in your app:
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"0!
Ticket #2592
(also Ticket #329)
785*$+,#-&$#)&785*$+,#-.!)
2'!(-"$P<H-(5/0
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what’s missing?
public assets
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migrations
simple DSL
rollback
 version !&:2/51%)":
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single timeline
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 Ticket #2058
interblah.net/plugin-migrations
my recommendation?
(for the moment, at least)
 write a generator
(within your plugin)

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techniques
overriding functionality
views just work
controllers
straight override
module
namespaced
playing nice with the
class cache
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testing
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unit test?
test in your own rails
environment?
plugin_test_helper
I care about testing
my chunk
You care about testing
your whole app
empower the
developer
avoiding fail
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consume wisely
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 14 kloc
Amount Per Serving 1 bad engine
Calories 10,666
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 2674g 98%
Long Methods 1578g 34%
God Objects 326g 7%
Stress 320mg 119%
Hairloss 45g 45.8%
Technical Debt 13g 87%
Untested Code 1578mg 34%
Hidden Bugs 326mg 7%
Benefit 1mg 0.1%
you will not be able to
write some engines.
you will not be able to
use some engines.
 extract
specific functionality
 establish some
clear integration points
you are customer #1
READ the CODE
james@lazyatom.com

FIN
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