RailsAdmin is a Rails engine that provides an easy-to-use interface for managing your data.
See the demo here: http://demo.railsadmin.org/
RailsAdmin started as a port of MerbAdmin to Rails 3 and was implemented as a Ruby Summer of Code project by Bogdan Gaza with mentors Erik Michaels-Ober, Yehuda Katz, Luke van der Hoeven, and Rein Henrichs.
It currently offers the following features:
- Display database tables
- Create new data
- Easily update data
- Safely delete data
- Automatic form validation
- Search and filtering
- Export data to CSV/JSON/XML
- Authentication (via Devise)
- User action history
Supported ORMs:
- ActiveRecord
Information about support for other ORMs. We plan to support Mongoid soon.
If you have a question, you can ask the official RailsAdmin mailing list or ping sferik on IRC in #railsadmin on irc.freenode.net. Please don't use the issue tracker, which is for issues only.
Check if the build is green here: http://ci.railsadmin.org/job/RailsAdmin/
If you have good reasons to think you found a rails_admin bug, submit a ticket providing link to gists with:
- used rails_admin commit (in your Gemfile.lock)
- obtained stacktrace
- your initializers/rails_admin.rb
- models declarations that matter
- and anything else you find relevant
navigation.max_visible_tabs
is not configurable anymore, as the new Activo
theme implements the main navigation as a vertical list.
object_label
is not directly configurable anymore, as it lead to performance issues when used with a list of records.
Please use object_label_method instead.
The ability to set model labels for each section (list, navigation, update, ...) has been removed,
as it was deemed unnecessarily granular and was not fully honored in all displays.
That also means that the methods label_for_navigation
, etc. are no longer functional. They print a warning at the moment.
See details in the examples below for the currently supported way to label models.
This change was motivated by the conversation following a bug report
about label display errors.
The ability to set model visibility for each section has been removed due to
same reasons as section specific label configuration (see above paragraph).
This also means that methods such as hide_from_navigation
and show_in_list
are no longer functional and have been deprecated. For now on use model level
configuration of visibility or for more granular control integrate an
authorization framework as outlined later in this document.
In your Gemfile
, add the following dependencies:
gem 'devise' # Devise must be required before RailsAdmin
gem 'rails_admin', :git => 'git://github.com/sferik/rails_admin.git'
Run:
$ bundle install
And then run:
$ rake rails_admin:install
This task will install RailsAdmin and Devise if you don't already have it installed. Devise is strongly recommended to protect your data from anonymous users.
If you plan to use Devise, but want to use a custom model for authentication (default is User) you can provide that as an argument for the installer. For example to override the default with a Member model run:
$ rake rails_admin:install model_name=member
If you want to use the CKEditor, you need to download it from source and unpack the 'ckeditor' folder into your default 'public/javascripts' folder. If you're using any non-Windows system, you can try to use the automatic downloader:
$ rake rails_admin:ckeditor_download
Start the server:
$ rails server
You should now be able to administer your site at http://localhost:3000/admin.
RailsAdmin provides its out of the box administrative interface by inspecting your application's models and following some Rails conventions. For a more tailored experience, it also provides a configuration DSL which allows you to customize many aspects of the interface.
The configuration code should be placed in an initializer file, for example:
config/initializers/rails_admin.rb
You can customize authentication by providing a custom block for RailsAdmin.authenticate_with
.
To disable authentication, pass an empty block:
RailsAdmin.authenticate_with {}
You can exclude models from RailsAdmin by appending those models to excluded_models
:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.excluded_models << ClassName
end
Whitelist Approach
By default, RailsAdmin automatically discovers all the models in the system and adds them to its list of models to
be accessible through RailsAdmin. The excluded_models
configuration above permits the blacklisting of individual model classes.
If you prefer a whitelist approach, then you can use the included_models
configuration option instead:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.included_models = [Class1, Class2, Class3]
end
Only the models explicitly listed will be put under RailsAdmin access, and the auto-discovery of models is skipped.
The blacklist is effective on top of that, still, so that if you also have:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.excluded_models = [Class1]
end
then only Class2
and Class3
would be made available to RailsAdmin.
The whitelist approach may be useful if RailsAdmin is used only for a part of the application and you want to make sure that new models are not automatically added to RailsAdmin, e.g. because of security concerns.
Setting the model's label
If you need to customize the label of the model, use:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
label "List of teams"
end
end
This label will be used anywhere the model name is shown, e.g. on the navigation tabs, Dashboard page, list pages, etc.
The object_label_method method
The model configuration has another option object_label_method
which configures
the title display of a single database record, i.e. an instance of a model.
By default it tries to call "name" or "title" methods on the record in question. If the object responds to neither, then the label will be constructed from the model's classname appended with its database identifier. You can add label methods (or replace the default [:name, :title]) with:
RailsAdmin.config {|c| c.label_methods << :description}
This object_label_method
value is used in a number of places in RailsAdmin--for instance for the
output of belongs to associations in the listing views of related models, for
the option labels of the relational fields' input widgets in the edit views of
related models and for part of the audit information stored in the history
records--so keep in mind that this configuration option has widespread
effects.
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
object_label_method do
:custom_label_method
end
end
end
def Team<ActiveRecord::Base
def custom_label_method
"Team #{self.name}"
end
end
Difference between label
and object_label
label
and object_label
are both model configuration options. label
is used
whenever Rails Admin refers to a model class, while object_label
is used whenever
Rails Admin refers to an instance of a model class (representing a single database record).
- hiding a model
- setting the model's label
- configuring the number of visible tabs
Hiding a model
You can hide a model from the top navigation by marking its visible
option
as false:
By passing the value as an argument:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
visible false
end
end
Or by passing a block that will be lazy evaluated each time the option is read:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
visible { false }
end
end
These two examples also work as a generic example of how most of the
configuration options function within RailsAdmin. You can pass a value as an
argument option_name value
, or you can pass in a block which will be
evaluated each time the option is read. Notable is that boolean options' reader
accessors will be appended with ? whereas the writers will not be. That is, if
you want to get the Team model's visibility, you use
RailsAdmin.config(Team).visible?
.
Create a dropdown menu in navigation
This will deactivate config.navigation.max_visible_tabs.
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
..
config.model Team do
parent League
end
config.model Division do
parent League
end
..
end
Obtained navigation:
Dashboard
...
League # (non-clickable)
League
Division
Team
...
You probably want to change the name of the dropdown. This can be easily achieved with the 'dropdown' attribute of the parent model.
Added to previous example:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
...
config.model League do
dropdown 'League related'
end
...
end
Obtained navigation:
Dashboard
...
League related # (non-clickable)
League
Division
Team
...
Change models order in navigation
By default, they are ordered by alphabetical order. If you need to override this, specify a weight attribute. Default is 0. Lower values will bubble items to the left, higher values will move them to the right. Items with same weight will still be ordered by alphabetical order. The mecanism is fully compatible with dropdown menus. Items will be ordered within their own menu subset. (but parent will always be first inside his submenu).
Example:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model League do
dropdown 'League related'
weight -1
end
end
The 'League related' dropdown menu will move to the leftmost position.
- Number of items per page
- Number of items per page per model
- Default sorting
- Configure globally
- Configure per model
- Fields
- Visibility and ordering
- Label
- Output formatting
- Sortability
- Column CSS class
- Column width
Number of items per page
You can configure the default number of rows rendered per page:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.list.default_items_per_page = 50
end
Number of items per page per model
You can also configure it per model:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
list do
items_per_page 100
end
end
end
Default sorting
By default, rows sorted by the field id
in reverse order
You can change default behavior with use two options: sort_by
and sort_reverse?
Default sorting - Configure globally
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.models do
list do
sort_by :updated_at
sort_reverse true # already default for serials ids and dates
end
end
end
Default sorting - Configure per model
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Player do
list do
sort_by :name
sort_reverse false
end
end
end
Fields - Sortability
You can make a column non-sortable by setting the sortable option to false (1) You can change the column that the field will actually sort on (2) Belongs_to associations : will be sorted on their label if label is not virtual (:name, :title, etc.) otherwise on the foreign_key (:team_id) you can also specify a column on the targetted table (see example) (3)
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Player do
list do
field :created_at do # (1)
sortable false
end
field :name do # (2)
sortable :last_name # imagine there is a :last_name column and that :name is virtual
end
field :team_id do # (3)
# Will order by players playing with the best teams,
# rather than the team name (by default),
# or the team id (dull but default if object_label is not a column name)
sortable :win_percentage
# if you need to specify the join association name:
# (See #526 and http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Associations/ClassMethods.html => table_aliasing)
sortable {:teams => :win_percentage}
# or
sortable "teams.win_percentage"
end
end
end
end
Default sort column is :id for ActiveRecord version To change it: RailsAdmin.config do |config| config.model Team do sort_by :name end end
By default, dates and serial ids are reversed when first-sorted ('desc' instead of 'asc' in SQL). If you want to reverse (or cancel it) the default sort order (first column click or the default sort column):
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
list do
field :id do
sort_reverse? false # will sort id increasing ('asc') first ones first (default is last ones first)
end
field :created_at do
sort_reverse? false # will sort dates increasing ('asc') first ones first (default is last ones first)
end
field :name do
sort_reverse? true # will sort name decreasing ('dec') z->a (default is a->z)
end
end
end
end
Fields - Searchability
You can make a column non-searchable by setting the searchable option to false (1) You can change the column that the field will actually search on (2) You can specify a list of column that will be searched over (3) Belongs_to associations : will be searched on their foreign_key (:team_id) or on their label if label is not virtual (:name, :title, etc.) you can also specify columns on the targetted table or the source table (see example) (4)
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Player do
list do
field :created_at do # (1)
searchable false
end
field :name do (2)
searchable :last_name
end
# OR
field :name do (3)
searchable [:first_name, :last_name]
end
field :team_id do # (4)
searchable [:name, :id]
# eq. to [Team => :name, Team => :id]
# or even [:name, Player => :team_id] will search on teams.name and players.team_id
# if you need to specify the join association name:
# (See #526 and http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Associations/ClassMethods.html => table_aliasing)
searchable [:teams => :name, :teams => :id]
# or
searchable ["teams.name", "teams.id"]
end
end
end
end
Searchable definitions will be used for searches and filters. You can independently deactivate querying (search) or filtering for each field with:
field :team do
searchable [:name, :color]
queryable? true # default
filterable? false
end
Fields - Visibility and ordering
By default all fields are visible, but they are not presented in any particular order. If you specifically declare fields, only defined fields will be visible and they will be presented in the order defined:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
list do
field :name
field :created_at
end
end
end
This would show only "name" and "created at" columns in the list view.
If you need to hide fields based on some logic on runtime (for instance
authorization to view field) you can pass a block for the visible
option
(including its hide
and show
accessors):
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
list do
field :name
field :created_at
field :revenue do
visible do
current_user.roles.include?(:accounting) # metacode
end
end
end
end
end
Note that above example's authorization conditional is not runnable code, just an imaginary example. You need to provide RailsAdmin with your own authorization scheme for which you can find a guide at the end of this file.
Fields - Label
The header of a list view column can be changed with the familiar label method:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
list do
field :name do
label "Title"
end
field :created_at do
label "Created on"
end
end
end
end
As in the previous example this would show only columns for fields "name" and "created at" and their headers would have been renamed to "Title" and "Created on".
Fields - Output formatting
The field's output can be modified:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
list do
field :name do
formatted_value do
value.to_s.upcase
end
end
field :created_at
end
end
end
This would render all the teams' names uppercased.
The field declarations also have access to a bindings hash which contains the current record instance in key :object and the view instance in key :view. Via :object we can access other columns' values and via :view we can access our application's view helpers:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
list do
field :name do
formatted_value do
bindings[:view].tag(:img, { :src => bindings[:object].logo_url }) << value
end
end
field :created_at
end
end
end
This would output the name column prepended with team's logo using the tag
view helper. This example uses value
method to access the name field's value,
but that could be written more verbosely as bindings[:object].name
.
Fields of different date types (date, datetime, time, timestamp) have two extra options to set the time formatting:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
list do
field :name
field :created_at do
date_format :short
end
field :updated_at do
strftime_format "%Y-%m-%d"
end
end
end
end
This would render all the teams' "created at" dates in the short format of your
application's locale and "updated at" dates in format YYYY-MM-DD. If both
options are defined for a single field, strftime_format
has precedence over
date_format
option. For more information about localizing Rails see
Rails Internationalization API
and Rails I18n repository.
Fields - Column CSS class
By default each column has a CSS class set according to field's data type. You can customize this by:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
list do
field :name
field :created_at do
css_class "customClass"
end
end
end
end
This would render the "created at" field's header and body columns with a CSS class named "customClass".
Fields - Column width
By default columns' widths are calculated from certain pre-defined, data-type-specific pixel values. If you want to ensure a minimum width for a column, you can:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
list do
field :name do
column_width 200
end
field :created_at
end
end
end
- Form rendering
- Field groupings
- Visibility
- Labels
- Syntax
- Fields
- Rendering
- Overriding field type
- Available field types
- Creating a custom field type
- Creating a custom field factory
- Overriding field help texts
- CKEditor integration
Form rendering
RailsAdmin renders these views with Rails' form builder (form_for). If you want to use a different form builder then provide an override for the edit view or independingly for the create and update views. The argument is a symbol or string that is sent to the view to process the form. This is handy for integrating things like the nested form builder (https://github.com/ryanb/nested_form) if you need to override a field's edit template.
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
form_builder :nested_form_for
field :name
end
end
end
or independently
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
create do
form_builder :create_form_for
field :name
end
update do
form_builder :update_form_for
field :name
end
end
end
Field groupings
By default RailsAdmin groups fields in the edit views (create and update views) by including all database columns and belongs to associations to "Basic info" group which is displayed on top of form. Below that are displayed all the other associations a model has, one group per association.
The configuration accessors are edit
, create
and update
. First one is a
batch accessor which configures both create and update views. For consistency,
these examples only include the batch accessor edit
, but if you need differing
create and update views just replace edit
with create
or update
.
Field groupings - visibility
Field groups can be hidden:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
group :default do
hide
end
end
end
end
This would hide the "Basic info" group which is accessed by the symbol :default.
Associations' groups can be accessed by the name of the association, such as
:fans or :players. The hide method is just a shortcut for the actual visible
option which was mentioned in the beginning of the navigation section.
Field groupings - labels
Field groups can be renamed:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
group :default do
label "Team information"
end
end
end
end
This would render "Team information" instead of "Basic info" as the groups label.
Field groupings - help
Field groups can have a set of instructions which is displayed under the label:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
group :default do
label "Team information"
help "Please fill all informations related to your team..."
end
end
end
end
This content is mostly useful when the admin doign the data entry is not familiar with the system or as a way to display inline documentation.
Field groupings - syntax
As in the list view, the edit views' configuration blocks can directly contain field configurations, but in edit views those configurations can also be nested within group configurations. Below examples result an equal configuration:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
group :default do
label "Default group"
end
field :name do
label "Title"
group :default
end
end
end
end
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
group :default do
label "Default group"
field :name do
label "Title"
end
end
end
end
end
In fact the first examples group :default
configuration is unnecessary
as the default group has already initialized all fields and belongs to
associations for itself.
Fields
Just like in the list view, all fields are visible by default. If you specifically declare fields, only defined fields will be visible and they will be presented in the order defined. Thus both examples would render a form with only one group (labeled "Default group") that would contain only one element (labeled "Title").
In the list view label is the text displayed in the field's column header, but in the edit views label literally means the html label element associated with field's input element.
Naturally edit views' fields also have the visible option along with hide and show accessors as the list view has.
Fields - rendering
The edit view's fields are rendered using partials. Each field type has its own partial per default, but that can be overridden:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
field :name do
partial "my_awesome_partial"
end
end
end
end
The partial should be placed in your applications template folder, such as
app/views/rails_admin/main/_my_awesome_partial.html.erb
.
One can also completely override the rendering logic:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
field :name do
render do
bindings[:view].render :partial => partial.to_s, :locals => {:field => self}
end
end
end
end
end
That example is just the default rendering method, but it shows you that you have access to the current template's scope with bindings[:view]. There's also bindings[:object] available, which is the database record being edited. Bindings concept was introduced earlier in this document and the functionality is the same.
Fields - overriding field type
If you'd like to override the type of the field that gets instantiated, the field method provides second parameter which is field type as a symbol. For instance, if we have a column that's a text column in the database, but we'd like to have it as a string type we could accomplish that like this:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
field :description, :string do
# configuration here
end
end
end
end
If no configuration needs to take place the configuration block could have been left out:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
field :description, :string
end
end
end
A word of warning, if you make field declarations for the same field a number of times with a type defining second argument in place, the type definition will ditch the old field configuration and load a new field instance in place.
Fields - Available field types
RailsAdmin ships with the following field types:
- belongs_to_association
- boolean
- date
- datetime
- decimal
- file_upload does not initialize automatically
- paperclip_file initializes automatically if Paperclip is present
- float
- has_and_belongs_to_many_association
- has_many_association
- has_one_association
- integer
- password initializes if string type column's name is password
- string
- enum
- text
- time
- timestamp
- virtual useful for displaying data that is calculated a runtime (for example a method call on model instance)
Fields - Creating a custom field type
If you have a reusable field you can define a custom class extending
RailsAdmin::Config::Fields::Base
and register it for RailsAdmin:
RailsAdmin::Config::Fields::Types::register(:my_awesome_type, MyAwesomeFieldClass)
Then you can use your custom class in a field:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
field :name, :my_awesome_type do
# configuration here
end
end
end
end
Fields - Creating a custom field factory
Type guessing can be overridden by registering a custom field "factory", but
for now you need to study lib/rails_admin/config/fields/factories/*
for
examples if you want to use that mechanism.
Fields - Overriding field help texts
Every field is accompanied by a hint/text help based on model's validations.
Everything can be overridden with help
:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
field :name
field :email do
help 'Required - popular webmail addresses not allowed'
end
end
end
end
Fields - Paperclip
class Team < ActiveRecord::Base
has_attached_file :image, :styles => { :medium => "300x300>", :thumb => "100x100>" }
# handling delete in your model, if needed. Replace all image occurences with your asset name.
attr_accessor :delete_image
before_save { self.image = nil if self.delete_image == '1' }
end
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
field :image do
thumb_method :thumb # for images. Will default to full size image, which might break the layout
delete_method :delete_image # actually not needed in this case: default is "delete_#{field_name}" if the object responds to it
end
end
end
end
Fields - Enum
Fields of datatype string, integer, text can be rendered with select boxes. Auto-detected if object responds to #{method_name}_enum
.
You can use enum_method
to indicate the name of the enumeration method in your model.
You can use enum
to override any enum_method
and give back a FormOptionsHelper#options_for_select
collection.
class Team < ActiveRecord::Base
...
def color_enum
[['blue', 'red'], 'red']
# should return any collection accepted by `FormOptionsHelper#options_for_select`
# See http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormOptionsHelper.html#method-i-options_for_select
end
...
end
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
field :color
# defaults to
# field :color, :enum do
# enum_method do
# :color_enum
# end
# end
end
end
end
If you don't have any enumeration method in your model, this will work:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
edit do
field :color, :enum do
enum do
['green', 'white']
end
end
end
end
end
Fields - CKEditor integration
CKEditor can be enabled on fields of type text:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model MyModel do
edit do
field :description, :text do
ckeditor true
end
end
end
end
Fields - Ordered has_many/has_and_belongs_to_many/has_many :through associations
Orderable can be enabled on filtering multiselect fields (has_many, has_many :through & has_and_belongs_to_many associations), allowing selected options to be moved up/down. RailsAdmin will handle ordering in and out of the form.
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Player do
edit do
field :fans do
orderable true
end
end
end
end
You'll need to handle ordering in your model with a position column for example.
- exclude_fields field_list
- exclude_fields_if cond
- include_fields field_list
- include_fields_if cond
- include_all_fields
- fields field_list, configuration_block
** Fields - exclude some fields **
By default all fields found on your model will be added to list/edit/export views, with a few exceptions for polymorphic columns and such. You can exclude specific fields with exclude_fields & exclude_fields_if:
Example:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model League do
list do
exclude_fields_if do
type == :datetime
end
exclude_fields :id, :name
end
end
end
But after you specify your first field, this behaviour will be canceled. Only the specified fields will be added. But you can then use include_all_fields to add all default fields:
Example:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model League do
list do
field :name do
# snipped specific configuration for name attribute
end
include_all_fields # all other default fields will be added after, conveniently
exclude_fields :created_at # but you still can remove fields
end
end
end
** Fields - include some fields **
It is also possible to add fields by group and configure them by batches:
Example:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model League do
list do
# all selected fields will be added, but you can't configure them.
# If you need to select them by type, see *fields_of_type*
include_fields_if do
name =~ /displayed/
end
include_fields :name, :title # simply adding fields by their names (order will be maintained)
fields :created_at, :updated_at do # adding and configuring
label do
"#{label} (timestamp)"
end
end
end
end
end
- Mass assign for every model configuration
- Mass assign for every section (create, list, navigation and update)
- Mass assign by field type
Mass assign for every model configuration
Mass assignment operations are used to pass in configuration blocks for multiple targets at once. For instance, the code below configures every models' every field with an uppercased label in the list view.
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.models do
list do
fields do
label do
label.upcase # in this context label refers to default label method
end
end
end
end
end
Mass assign for every section (create, list, navigation and update)
If one would like to assign that same behavior for all the different views in RailsAdmin (create, list, navigation and update) one could pass the label definition one level higher:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.models do
fields do
label do
label.upcase
end
end
end
end
As the navigation section does not define the fields
method this
configuration is only effective for create, list and update views.
Naturally this also works for a single model configuration:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.model Team do
fields do
label do
label.upcase
end
end
end
end
Mass assign by field type
One can also assign configurations for all fields by type. For instance modifying the date presentation of all datetime fields in all sections can be accomplished like this:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.models do
fields_of_type :datetime do
strftime_format "%Y-%m-%d"
end
end
end
Or even scope it like this:
RailsAdmin.config do |config|
config.models do
list do
fields_of_type :datetime do
date_format :compact
end
end
end
end
Authorization can be added using the authorize_with
method. If you pass a block
it will be triggered through a before filter on every action in Rails Admin.
RailsAdmin.authorize_with do
redirect_to root_path unless warden.user.is_admin?
end
To use an authorization adapter, pass the name of the adapter. For example, to use with CanCan, pass it like this.
RailsAdmin.authorize_with :cancan
See the wiki for more on authorization.
When running rake rails_admin:install
the locale files (config/locales/...
) and the static asset files
(javascript files, images, stylesheets) are copied to your local application tree.
Should you update the gem to a new version that perhaps includes updated locale or asset files, then you won't automatically be able to take advantage of these. In fact, you may choose for this reason, to not commit locale files and asset files to your local repository and instead have them loaded from the gem.
You can choose to commit locale files to your local application tree, if you want to modify them from what the gem supplies; then you also need to manage updates by hand. Locale files will be automatically loaded from the gem unless overrides exist.
For asset files, the following applies: When running in development mode, the rails_admin engine will inject a middleware to serve static assets (javascript files, images, stylesheets) from the gem's location. This generally isn't a good setup for high-traffic production environments. Depending on your web server configuration is may also just plain fail. You may need to serve the asset files from the local application tree (public/...). You can choose to have the assets served from the gem in development mode but from the local application tree in production mode. In that case, you need to copy the assets during deployment (e.g. via a capistrano hook).
Two rake tasks have been provided to copy locale and asset files to the local application tree:
rake rails_admin:copy_locales
rake rails_admin:copy_assets
These tasks run automatically during installation, but are provided separately, e.g. for updates or deployments.
In the spirit of free software, everyone is encouraged to help improve this project.
Here are some ways you can contribute:
- by using alpha, beta, and prerelease versions
- by reporting bugs
- by suggesting new features
- by translating to a new language
- by writing or editing documentation
- by writing specifications
- by writing code (no patch is too small: fix typos, add comments, clean up inconsistent whitespace)
- by refactoring code
- by resolving issues
- by reviewing patches
We use the GitHub issue tracker to track bugs and features. Before submitting a bug report or feature request, check to make sure it hasn't already been submitted. You can indicate support for an existing issue by voting it up. When submitting a bug report, please include a Gist that includes a stack trace and any details that may be necessary to reproduce the bug, including your gem version, Ruby version, and operating system. Ideally, a bug report should include a pull request with failing specs.
- Fork the project.
- Create a topic branch.
- Implement your feature or bug fix. NOTE - there's a small test app located in the spec/dummy_app directory that you can use to experiment with rails_admin.
- Add documentation for your feature or bug fix.
- Run
bundle exec rake doc:yard
. If your changes are not 100% documented, go back to step 4. - Add specs for your feature or bug fix.
- Run
bundle exec rake spec
. If your changes are not 100% covered, go back to step 6. - Commit and push your changes.
- Submit a pull request. Please do not include changes to the gemspec, version, or history file. (If you want to create your own version for some reason, please do so in a separate commit.)
If you have questions about contributing to RailsAdmin, please contact Erik Michaels-Ober and Bogdan Gaza.