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rails application templates

Daniel Kehoe edited this page Jun 15, 2012 · 26 revisions

Rails Application Template Projects

by Daniel Kehoe

Last updated 21 May 2012

Rails application templates are Ruby scripts used with the "rails new myapp -m" command to generate a Rails web application. They are often used to generate “starter apps” that can be the basis of many development projects.

Many developers have developed Rails application templates. This is a list of notable projects.

Also see an annotated list of Rails Examples, Tutorials, and Starter Apps.

Application template-generating website

These websites allow you to select “recipes” and generate an application template and a starter app.

Author Site Comments
Daniel Davey drone.bz emphasis on Sass, Compass, Coffeescript and Slim
Michael Bleigh RailsWizard recipes are dated, not maintained

Application template-generating gems

Install these gems to generate an application template and a starter app.

Some have a collection of “recipes”. Fork the gem and edit the recipes for a custom app template.

Author Gem Comments
Daniel Davey app_drone Built for the drone.bz website; many recipes
Daniel Kehoe Rails Apps Composer A fork of the RailsWizard gem; actively maintained
Dr. Nic Williams App Scrolls A fork of the RailsWizard gem; actively maintained
Michael Bleigh RailsWizard Built for the RailsWizard website; no longer maintained
Kevin Faustino Rails Templater Mongoid or ActiveRecord
Kristian Mandrup Cream Devise, CanCan, roles, many ORMs
Quick Left Prologue Devise, CanCan, ActiveRecord only, many recipes
Thoughtbot Suspenders ActiveRecord only, no recipes

Rails application template projects

Use these scripts with the "rails new myapp -m" command to generate an application.

You can find a collection of application templates that were created with the Rails Apps Composer gem here.

Devise or OmniAuth, ActiveRecord or Mongoid. Options for RSpec, Cucumber, Factory Girl, jQuery, Haml. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

These projects were updated in 2011 and use Devise for authentication:

Devise, RSpec, Factory Girl, jQuery, Haml, Sass, Compass, Git, rvm, HTML5 Boilerplate, plus a layout. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

Devise (with Cucumber steps), Cucumber, RSpec, Factory Girl, Haml, Compass, jQuery, Git, Formtastic, a layout, and much more. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

Devise or Authlogic or OmniAuth, Cucumber, Capybara, RSpec, Factory Girl, Shoulda, jQuery, Haml, Compass, 960 grid or Blueprint, Capistrano or Heroku or Inploy, Git, plus a layout. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

PostgreSQL, Devise, Cucumber with Selenium and Capybara, RSpec with Machinist and Faker, JQuery, Simple Form, Haml, SASS, Git, rvm, Google analytics (optional), Hoptoad for issue tracking (optional), TellThemWhen for downtime notifications (optional). With a description of the recipe in the README.

These projects were updated in 2010 and use Devise:

Devise, RSpec, Cucumber with Capybara, Factory Girl, jQuery, Simple Form, Git, rvm. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

Devise, Cucumber, Shoulda with Factory Girl and Mocha, Haml, Sass, Formtastic, jQuery, Git, rvm.

This project was updated in 2010 and uses Mongoid:

Mongoid or ActiveRecord, RSpec, FactoryGirl, Cucumber (with Mongoid steps), jQuery, Haml, Sass, Compass. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

These projects were updated in 2011 and do not use Devise or Mongoid:

Cucumber, RSpec, jQuery, Haml or Jammit, Capistrano, Git, rvm, plus a layout. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

Cucumber, RSpec, Factory Girl or Fabrication, Haml, jQuery, Git, rvm.

Haml, Sass, Git, plus a layout.

These Rails 2.3 projects were once popular but haven’t been updated since 2009 or 2010:

Ruby Toolbox Ranking

For a ranking of some older application templates by popularity, see:
The Ruby Toolbox: Rails App Templates

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