5

So I'd like to share models between two Rails apps and do not like the submodules solution (burned me in the past). I'm thinking about using gems to solve this and have this basically working:

  1. Create a gem using jeweler (my_models)
  2. Create a rails app with something in the Gemfile like: gem 'my_models', :path => '../my_models' so you can avoid constantly packaging the gem, etc.
  3. Use shotgun to constantly reload all the classes (otherwise you can't really edit my_models files without restarting the server/console each time.

So a few questions:

  1. Shotgun is slow, is there a better way in Rails to reload just that one gem each time?
  2. If my my_models ActiveRecord models have dependencies, I put them in my_models gems, will that cause dependency nightmares in my regular app?
  3. What else am I missing on why this could be a bad idea?
David
  • 537
  • 3
  • 14

1 Answers1

0

If you use a VCS with submodules support (like Git) you could just put models into a different repository and make it a submodule of your Rails apps. That would give you an almost effortless code sharing - Rails wouldn't even know that you are cheating.

Marek Sapota
  • 20,103
  • 3
  • 34
  • 47
  • I think submodules is a bad idea as it separates the repository structure from the code structure (for example, what do you do with tests etc.?) – David Feb 25 '11 at 14:50
  • Then pulling submodule into vendor and setting up symlinks (with a Rake task probably) from main structure to submodule could be an answer. Basically that would be like having a separate Gem, but without Gem packaging and reloading overhead. – Marek Sapota Feb 25 '11 at 17:27