[LRUG] Multiple Rails apps sharing common UI

[Kerry Buckley]

Hi LRUG,

I have a small Rails app used by a closed set of internal users, and am
about to create another, for the same users (or at least an overlapping
group). They've asked that the two apps (and potentially more over time)
are presented as one integrated front end, rather than users having to
visit multiple URLs, log in separately etc.

I'm wondering what the best approach to this is. I don't want to go to the
extreme of a JS front end with the Rails apps just presenting JSON APIs, so
the main options seem to be:

* Separate apps with matching layouts, and headers, with some kind of
single sign-on
* One big app with namespaced routes, controllers etc to try and keep
things vaguely separated
* Separate apps into Rails engines, mounted in a master app that manages
sessions etc

I'm kind of leaning towards the third option, but I've never used Rails
engines before, and I'm not 100% sure how that approach would work out. My
main concern is acceptance/integration tests – it seems to me like they'd
have to live in the wrapper app as most of them would rely on users,
sessions etc.

Has anyone had experience of this kind of thing, and if so, which of the
above approaches would you recommend (or discourage)? Is there a better
solution I've missed? I'm about to start spiking something with engines to
see how things fall together, but some opinions from someone who's done it
in anger would be great!

Thanks,

Kerry
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