App Config

Rails framework default configuration way is, as we all know, flexible and simple at the same time. Troubles begins when Your application starts to grow - some form of app specific configuration is then required to keep all as DRY as possible.

AppConfig plugin provides a convenient way for configuration application wide settings. Extra custom files in config/ or other unusual configuration hacks are no longer needed. AppConfig extends Rails configuration process in a way that allows to setup application specific options within default configuration block. Installation:

You can install directly from the repository:

    $ script/plugin install http://github.com/anagri/app_config.git

NOTE: because AppConfig modifies Rails configuration internals, must be included before Rails::Initializer#run. This step is taken automatically during installation. Otherwise add the following line to conf/environment.rb file:

    require 'plugins/app_config/lib/configuration'

(somewhere between line ‘require File.join(File.dirname(FILE), ‘boot’) and ‘Rails::Initializer.run’) Usage

You can specify app-wide settings in configuration file(s) using 'app_config' prefix e.g. environment.rb:

    Rails::Initializer.run do |config|
    ...
       # --- My killer-app specific settings:
       config.app_config.my_key = 'my value'
       config.app_config.boot_time = Time.now
       config.app_config.default_mail_subject = '[appconfig] '
       config.app_config.my_hash = {:a=>1, :b=>2}
    ...

but also in e.g. environment/development.rb

    ...
    config.app_config.default_message = "I'm now in development mode..."
    ...

Access to previously configured settings from within application code is also dead easy:

    AppConfig.my_key
    AppConfig[:my_key]
    AppConfig['my_key']
    AppConfig.param('my_key')
    AppConfig.param(:my_key)
    AppConfig.param('my_key', 'value if my_key is nil')
    AppConfig.param(:my_key)do
     ... #executed when my_key is nil
    end

Happy (re)configurations!

Copyright (c) 2010 [Amiruddin Nagri (original plugin by Daniel Owsianski daniel-at-jarmark-d0t-org)], released under the MIT license