The “localized_scaffold” gem provides a Rails 3 generator for scaffolding with the same parameters as the orginal scaffold generator (it actually overwrites the original code) but producing localized views and localized controller flashes. It also generates a nicer user interface (for example with a title helper instead of generating h2) and produces a controller with some comments which also supports JSON. Localized Rails scaffolding with style…
Just give it a try and toss it away if you don’t like it – it’s pretty easy to have a test drive (see sample below).
Rails 2: There is a Rails 2 compatible version which has to be installed as a Rails plugin instead of a gem. The latest Rails 2 version can be installed from branch “rails2”.
Here are the steps to get a first impression about the generator:
rails new foo cd foo
Edit the Gemfile to include “localized_scaffold” and optionally install the “will_paginate” gem to automatically add pagination using this library. The generated code uses “form.error_messages” which was moved to a separate plugin in Rails 3 for some reason. Install that gem or implement the method with your own code to see error messages.
vi Gemfile gem 'localized_scaffold' gem 'will_paginate', '>= 3.0.pre' gem 'dynamic_form' bundle install
A standard set of localization files will be installed in “config/locales” and a set of locale files is generated per scaffold. This setup has to be configured in the i18n configuration:
rake localized_scaffold:configure
If you don’t like a rake task to mess around with your application file, edit “config/application.rb”) manually and add the following lines to the Rails initializer (only the two config lines…):
Rails::Initializer.run do |config| config.i18n.load_path += Dir[Rails.root.join('config', 'locales', '*.{rb,yml}')] config.i18n.default_locale = :en end
Add more locale files by downloading them from a repository set up by Sven Fuchs at github (git://github.com/svenfuchs/rails-i18n.git) to “config/locales”:
rake localized_scaffold:download_locales
Have a look at the options supported by the generator:
rails generate localized_scaffold
As a first test, just add a sample scaffold:
rails generate localized_scaffold bar name:string seats:integer rake db:migrate rails server
Now open your browser and visit “localhost:3000/bars” to test the application and finally have a look at the localization files generated in “config/locales”.
And please contribute by sending in your localized versions of the default and standard locale files. :-)
I couldn’t resist to add a few small but powerful additions I need so often: Feel free to use or ignore them.
Models should return something meaningful when to_s is called on their objects and optional option --str is used to do so. The to_s method of the model is generated to return the provided field (therefor the name of the option) and its fallback is the value of the searchbar option (see below) or the first attribute if that is missing as well. You can always modify the implementation of the method afterwards.
Sample using “about” instead of default first attribute “name”:
rails generate localized_scaffold company name:string about:text --str about
There is an --belongsto option which can be used to generate model, controller and views for a “parent” belongs_to relationship like companies having many addresses or phone numbers.
Here is a sample for exactly that:
rails generate localized_scaffold company name:string about:text rails generate localized_scaffold address company_id:integer what:string \ street:string zip:string town:string state:string country:string \ --belongsto company --str town rails generate localized_scaffold email company_id:integer kind:string \ address:string --belongsto company --str address
There is only little linking between the interfaces and you should double check your routes, but after creating a new company at “/companies/new”, you will be able to see all its addresses and add new ones at “/companies/1/addresses”. Same for e-mail-addresses at “/companies/1/emails”.
When there are lots of records, it makes sense to have an A B C picker and it would be nice to offer a simple search form for fast access to known objects. That’s what the new --searchbar option does. It supports the --belongsto option but is also useful without.
Here again a sample:
rails generate localized_scaffold company name:string about:text \ --searchbar name
Often the show view is not needed as the index view already displays all of its data. Just add this option to suppress its generation. The show action is still generated to support the XML and JSON format but for HTML the user will be redirected to the index page.
Here is a sample:
rails generate localized_scaffold company name:string about:text --noshow
When having a belongs_to relationship, it might be nicer to not only link to that data from the show view of the “parent” but to actually embed a couple of items and use the index view only if more than a certain amount of items is available. That’s what the --embed option is for:
rails generate localized_scaffold email company_id:integer what:string \ address:string --belongsto company --str address --embed 4
Some fields only allow a certain set of values and these values have to be localized as well. The listify option implements such a mechanism by creating a set of methods in the model and preparing the localization files. Sample: “salutation:mr,mrs,none kind:office,private,mobile,other”
And a sample:
rails generate localized_scaffold email company_id:integer kind:string \ address:string --belongsto company --str address \ --listify "kind:office,private,other"
There is still enough to do till you have a nice app and this is still scaffolding and nothing more, but these additional options should save some annoying work…
As a wrap up, here is a complete sample of a simple phone book only using scaffolding:
rails new phonebook cd phonebook vi Gemfile gem 'localized_scaffold' gem 'will_paginate', '>= 3.0.pre' gem 'dynamic_form' bundle install rake localized_scaffold:download_locales rake localized_scaffold:configure vi config/application.rb config.i18n.default_locale = :de # For example rails generate localized_scaffold person salutation:string firstname:string \ lastname:string --searchbar lastname --listify "salutation:mr,mrs,none" rails generate localized_scaffold phone person_id:integer kind:string \ number:string --belongsto person \ --listify "kind:office,private,mobile,fax,other" \ --str number --embed 5 --noshow rails generate localized_scaffold email person_id:integer kind:string \ address:string --belongsto person --listify "kind:office,private,other" \ --str address --embed 5 --noshow rake db:migrate vi config/routes.rb root :to => 'people#index' rm public/index.html rails server
Now open localhost:3000/people to test the application and finally have a look at the localization files generated in “app/locale”.
There is an additional generator named “localized_devise_views” which does just would you would expect: It adds its own “devise_views.en.yml” etc. files and uses these files for localization of devise. The generated code also uses the title helper for title and headline which integrates better with the remaining application.
Here are the additional steps to run a localized version of devise in the application above. And be sure to have at least Rails 3.0.0.beta4 required in your Gemfile as the newest devise version fails with prior betas…
vi Gemfile gem 'devise', '>= 1.1.3' bundle install rails generate devise:install rails generate devise user rails generate localized_devise_views user rake db:migrate vi config/environments/development.rb config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { :host => 'localhost:3000' } vi app/controllers/application_controller.rb before_filter :authenticate_user!, :except => [ :show, :index] rails server
Now open localhost:3000/people to test the application and check that you have to register to create a new person or edit an existing one.
Copyright © 2009, 2010 Jan Ulbrich
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