Exploring Rails Engines: Building Modular Applications
Rails Engines are a powerful tool in Ruby on Rails that allow developers to build modular applications in a more manageable and reusable way. With engines, you can encapsulate specific functionality into separate components that can be plugged into multiple applications or even shared with other developers.
What is a Rails Engine?
A Rails Engine is essentially a self-contained application that behaves like a mini Ruby on Rails application. It can have its own models, controllers, views, assets, and routes. However, unlike a full-fledged Rails application, an engine is designed to be integrated into another application.
Engines are usually used to extract common functionality shared across multiple applications, such as authentication systems, user management, or API integrations. By building these features as engines, developers can leverage the power of modularity and reduce code duplication.
Creating a Rails Engine
To create a Rails Engine, you can use the rails plugin new command:
This will generate a new engine structure with the necessary files and folders to get started. In the generated structure, you will find directories for models, controllers, views, and other typical Rails components.
Mounting an Engine
Once you have built your engine, you need to mount it within your main Rails application. This is done by adding the following line to your application’s config/routes.rb file:
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