custom rails generators for my personal workflow
Given this input file:
...it will output these files:
- regular Rails model with validations and
belongs_toassociations - RSpec model spec with attribute validations (using shoulda-matchers)
- FactoryBot factory with decent defaults (even sequences!)
- ActiveAdmin config for with a basic index/view/form implemented, and some commented-out options you might want to use
Also, it will print out the migration-generation command for you to use.
I got tired of writing the same boilerplate files every time I added a new model to my project. (Yeah, I know, Rails has a model generator, but I don't love it.)
It's all pretty formulaic, and looking up syntax for uncommon cases is annoying. This junk can be generated, so it should be generated!
Instead of specifying the attributes & associations via clunky command line, you put them in a yaml file that RGen reads. This is great, because often I mess up once or twice before getting it right; I can just edit the yaml file and re-run the generator.
It's completely standalone. It doesn't care about your actual Rails app. It just reads an input and spits out files.
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Clone or download the repo
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Make sure you have Rails gem installed, which you probably do. (grants-rgen uses
ActiveSupport::Inflector) -
App Configuration
When RGen runs, it looks for a config file
rgen.config.yaml(this exact file name) in the same directory as the model's yaml file. That config file specifies which generators to run, and the output directories for the generated file types.All paths in this config that don't start with "/" are relative to the config file itself.
Have a look at demo/rgenspec/rgen.config.yaml.
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Model Configuration
Specify the attributes and associations for the model you want to generate.
The demo file has comments that document it pretty well.
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Run the Generator
grants-rgen$ ruby -I lib/ rgen.rb demo/rgenspec/thinger.yaml -
Run the migration command.
RGen's output gives you the migration-generator command to run. Copy/paste and run it!
And then don't forget to edit the resulting migration to add default values.
Q: Should I check the model yaml files into my source repo?
Your call. You probably won't use it again.
Might be handy for future reference.
Q: Can it generate controllers or views?
No. I don't use generators for those, so it's not really part of my workflow.
It could be done. (You could write a generator for anything.)
Q: Why isn't this a gem?
Not sure if anyone else would want it. Could happen.
Q: Why didn't you extend or implement a proper Rails generator?
I didn't feel like learning how. It was faster to just do this.
Q: Why doesn't it generate minitest files?
Because RSpec is waaaaay better.
I dunno, make a Github issue I guess. Or tweet me or something.