An overview on

1. EXTENDING RAILS
GEMS AND PLUGINS
Wednesday, October 5, 2011

2. TYPES OF EXTENSIONS
• Plugins / Gems
• intializers
• dynamic configuration
• “monkey patching”
Wednesday, October 5, 2011

3. GEMS VS. PLUGINS
• Older versions of Rails required a plugin
for some extensions
• If there is both a plugin and a gem, use the gem
• If there is only a plugin, it is likely a sign of inactivity
Wednesday, October 5, 2011

4. IS IT GOOD?
1. Unlike proprietary software, great extensions don’t
require the backing of a corporation
e.g. tenderlove (Nokogiri), carlhuda (Bundler)
2. On www.rubygems.org? Number of downloads?
3. Source on github? Number of forks?
4. Multiple committers? Freshness of activity?
5. Tests? Do tests pass?
6. Is there a mailing list? Activity?
7. Is there an issues list? Activity?
Wednesday, October 5, 2011

5. USING GEMS
Often as simple as
1. Update the gemfile
2. bundle install
3. rails g whatever
For example:
https://github.com/blazingcloud/devise-example
Wednesday, October 5, 2011