Rails::Railtie
is the core of the Rails framework and provides several hooks to extend Rails and/or modify the initialization process.
Every major component of Rails (Action Mailer, Action Controller, Active Record, etc.) implements a railtie. Each of them is responsible for their own initialization. This makes Rails itself absent of any component hooks, allowing other components to be used in place of any of the Rails defaults.
Developing a Rails extension does not require implementing a railtie, but if you need to interact with the Rails framework during or after boot, then a railtie is needed.
For example, an extension doing any of the following would need a railtie:
creating initializers
configuring a Rails framework for the application, like setting a generator
adding config.*
keys to the environment
setting up a subscriber with ActiveSupport::Notifications
adding Rake tasks
To extend Rails using a railtie, create a subclass of Rails::Railtie
. This class must be loaded during the Rails boot process, and is conventionally called MyNamespace::Railtie
.
The following example demonstrates an extension which can be used with or without Rails.
# lib/my_gem/railtie.rb module MyGem class Railtie < Rails::Railtie end end # lib/my_gem.rb require 'my_gem/railtie' if defined?(Rails)
To add an initialization step to the Rails boot process from your railtie, just define the initialization code with the initializer
macro:
class MyRailtie < Rails::Railtie initializer "my_railtie.configure_rails_initialization" do # some initialization behavior end end
If specified, the block can also receive the application object, in case you need to access some application-specific configuration, like middleware:
class MyRailtie < Rails::Railtie initializer "my_railtie.configure_rails_initialization" do |app| app.middleware.use MyRailtie::Middleware end end
Finally, you can also pass :before
and :after
as options to initializer
, in case you want to couple it with a specific step in the initialization process.
Railties can access a config object which contains configuration shared by all railties and the application:
class MyRailtie < Rails::Railtie # Customize the ORM config.app_generators.orm :my_railtie_orm # Add a to_prepare block which is executed once in production # and before each request in development. config.to_prepare do MyRailtie.setup! end end
If your railtie has Rake tasks, you can tell Rails to load them through the method rake_tasks
:
class MyRailtie < Rails::Railtie rake_tasks do load 'path/to/my_railtie.tasks' end end
By default, Rails loads generators from your load path. However, if you want to place your generators at a different location, you can specify in your railtie a block which will load them during normal generators lookup:
class MyRailtie < Rails::Railtie generators do require 'path/to/my_railtie_generator' end end
An engine is nothing more than a railtie with some initializers already set. And since Rails::Application
is an engine, the same configuration described here can be used in both.
Be sure to look at the documentation of those specific classes for more information.
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 150 def abstract_railtie? ABSTRACT_RAILTIES.include?(name) end
Allows you to configure the railtie. This is the same method seen in Railtie::Configurable, but this module is no longer required for all subclasses of Railtie so we provide the class method here.
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 172 def configure(&block) instance.configure(&block) end
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 138 def console(&blk) register_block_for(:load_console, &blk) end
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 146 def generators(&blk) register_block_for(:generators, &blk) end
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 128 def inherited(base) unless base.abstract_railtie? subclasses << base end end
Since Rails::Railtie cannot be instantiated, any methods that call instance
are intended to be called only on subclasses of a Railtie.
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 161 def instance @instance ||= new end
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 154 def railtie_name(name = nil) @railtie_name = name.to_s if name @railtie_name ||= generate_railtie_name(self.name) end
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 134 def rake_tasks(&blk) register_block_for(:rake_tasks, &blk) end
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 165 def respond_to_missing?(*args) instance.respond_to?(*args) || super end
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 142 def runner(&blk) register_block_for(:runner, &blk) end
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 124 def subclasses @subclasses ||= [] end
This is used to create the config
object on Railties, an instance of Railtie::Configuration, that is used by Railties and Application to store related configuration.
# File railties/lib/rails/railtie.rb, line 217 def config @config ||= Railtie::Configuration.new end
© 2004–2017 David Heinemeier Hansson
Licensed under the MIT License.