[LRUG] Multiple Rails apps sharing common UI

[Artan Sinani]

I have used engines and I think they're great for separating unrelated code
as well as sharing common code. I did struggle a bit at the beginning (lots
of googling) with setting up the app, creating database models in the
engine and then installing them in the main app, engine versions, etc. But
once I got it all working, everything was a breeze.

Best,
Artan




LugoLabs.com <http://lugolabs.com>

On 19 May 2015 at 10:37, Graham Ashton <graham at effectif.com> wrote:

> Are there any relationships (in the business domain) between the data that
> the two apps deal with? I'm wondering whether it would (user interface and
> code-complexity issues aside) make sense to store them together. It could
> provide another useful angle on whether keeping things separate makes sense.
>
> If putting it all in one database sounds good (or at least, doesn't feel
> uncomfortable) I'd favour the cheapest approach approach to maintain that
> delivered a good end-user experience.
>
> I suspect that means I'd favour a single app, organising the code in
> namespaces, and sharing all the stuff that's common. It's easy to over
> engineer stuff like this, and force yourself to jump through costly hoops.
>
> Namespaces are great. In my experience, we Rails developers don't use them
> enough.
>
> If you're reluctant to use namespaces, is there a specific problem you'd
> be trying to avoid?
>
> Cheers,
> Graham
>
>
> On Tuesday 19 May, Kerry Buckley wrote:
>
> > 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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