In this guide you will learn about engines and how they can be used to provide additional functionality to their host applications through a clean and very easy-to-use interface. You will learn the following things in this guide:
* What are engines
* Generating an engine
* Building features for the engine
* Hooking the engine into an application
* Overriding engine functionality in the application
Engines can be considered miniature applications that provide functionality to their host applications. A Rails application is actually just a "supercharged" engine, with the +Rails::Application+ class inheriting from +Rails::Engine+. Therefore, engines and applications share common functionality but are at the same time two separate beasts. Engines and applications also share a common structure, as you'll see througout this guide.
Engines are also closely related to plugins where the two share a common +lib+ directory structure and are both generated using the +rails plugin new+ generator.
The engine that will be generated for this guide will be called "blorgh". The engine will provide blogging functionality to its host applications, allowing for new posts and comments to be created. For now, you will be working solely within the engine itself and in later sections you'll see how to hook it into an application.
Engines can also be isolated from their host applications. This means that an application is able to have a path provided by a routing helper such as +posts_path+ and use an engine also that provides a path also called +posts_path+, and the two would not clash. Along with this, controllers, models and table names are also namespaced. You'll see how to do this later in this guide.
To see demonstrations of other engines, check out "Devise":https://github.com/plataformatec/devise, an engine that provides authentication for its parent applications, or "Forem":https://github.com/radar/forem, an engine that provides forum functionality.
Finally, engines would not have be possible without the work of James Adam, Piotr Sarnacki, the Rails Core Team, and a number of other people. If you ever meet them, don't forget to say thanks!
To generate an engine with Rails 3.1, you will need to run the plugin generator and pass it the +--mountable+ option. To generate the beginnings of the "blorgh" engine you will need to run this command in a terminal:
<shell>
$ rails plugin new blorgh --mountable
</shell>
The +--mountable+ option tells the plugin generator that you want to create an engine (which is a mountable plugin, hence the option name), creating the basic directory structure of an engine by providing things such as the foundations of an +app+ folder, as well a +config/routes.rb+ file. This generator also provides a file at +lib/blorgh/engine.rb+ which is identical in function to an application's +config/application.rb+ file.
At the root of the engine's directory, lives a +blorgh.gemspec+ file. When you include the engine into the application later on, you will do so with this line in a Rails application's +Gemfile+:
<ruby>
gem 'blorgh', :path => "vendor/engines/blorgh"
</ruby>
By specifying it as a gem within the +Gemfile+, Bundler will load it as such, parsing this +blorgh.gemspec+ file and requiring a file within the +lib+ directory called +lib/blorgh.rb+. This file requires the +blorgh/engine.rb+ file (located at +lib/blorgh/engine.rb+) and defines a base module called +Blorgh+.
By inheriting from the +Rails::Engine+ class, this engine gains all the functionality it needs, such as being able to serve requests to its controllers.
The +isolate_namespace+ method here deserves special notice. This call is responsible for isolating the controllers, models, routes and other things into their own namespace. Without this, there is a possibility that the engine's components could "leak" into the application, causing unwanted disruption. It is recommended that this line be left within this file.
h5. +app+ directory
Inside the +app+ directory there lives the standard +assets+, +controllers+, +helpers+, +mailers+, +models+ and +views+ directories that you should be familiar with from an application. The +helpers+, +mailers+ and +models+ directories are empty and so aren't described in this section. We'll look more into models in a future section.
Within the +app/assets+ directory, there is the +images+, +javascripts+ and +stylesheets+ directories which, again, you should be familiar with due to their similarities of an application. One difference here however is that each directory contains a sub-directory with the engine name. Because this engine is going to be namespaced, its assets should be too.
Within the +app/controllers+ directory there is a +blorgh+ directory and inside that a file called +application_controller.rb+. This file will provide any common functionality for the controllers of the engine. The +blorgh+ directory is where the other controllers for the engine will go. By placing them within this namespaced directory, you prevent them from possibly clashing with identically-named controllers within other engines or even within the application.
Lastly, the +app/views+ directory contains a +layouts+ folder which contains file at +blorgh/application.html.erb+ which allows you to specify a layout for the engine. If this engine is to be used as a stand-alone engine, then we would add any customization to its layout in this file, rather than the applications +app/views/layouts/application.html.erb+ file.
h5. +script+ directory
This directory contains one file, +script/rails+, which allows you to use the +rails+ sub-commands and generators just like you would within an application. This means that you will very easily be able to generate new controllers and models for this engine.
h5. +test+ directory
The +test+ directory is where tests for the engine will go. To test the engine, there is a cut-down version of a Rails application embedded within it at +test/dummy+. This application will mount the engine in the +test/dummy/config/routes.rb+ file:
<ruby>
Rails.application.routes.draw do
mount Blorgh::Engine => "/blorgh"
end
</ruby>
This line mounts the engine at the path of +/blorgh+, which will make it accessible through the application only at that path. We will look more into mounting an engine after we have developed some features.
Also in the test directory is the +test/integration+ directory, where integration tests for the engine should be placed.
TODO: Brief explanation of what this engine is going to be doing and what we will have once we are done.
TODO: Generate a posts scaffold (maybe?) for the engine
TODO: Generate a comments scaffold (maybe?) for the engine
h3. Hooking into application
TODO: Application will provide a User foundation class which the engine hooks into through a configuration setting, configurable in the application's initializers. The engine will be mounted at the +/blog+ path in the application.
h3. Overriding engine functionality
TODO: Cover how to override engine functionality in the engine, such as controllers and views.
IDEA: I like Devise's +devise :controllers => { "sessions" => "sessions" }+ idea. Perhaps we could incorporate that into the guide?
