Sinatra::FromRails - Convert your Rails app to a Sinatra app¶ ↑

A sweet plugin to change your Rails app into a Sinatra app. First, install the plugin in your existing Rails app:

cd vendor/plugins
git clone git://github.com/nateware/sinatra_from_rails.git

To generate a “classic” (single-file) app:

rake sinatra:from_rails:classic   # writes to main.rb

To generate a modular app:

rake sinatra:from_rails:modular   # writes to app/routes

To change the name of the output file for a classic app (default is main.rb):

rake sinatra:from_rails:classic OUTPUT_FILE=application.rb

To change the output directory for a modular app, and the name of the class:

rake sinatra:from_rails:classic OUTPUT_DIR=app/services CLASS_NAME=Services

Options¶ ↑

The following options can be passed to Sinatra::FromRails.convert. To pass them to the rake task, simply pass them as uppercase to the rake command line. For example:

rake sinatra:from_rails:classic ANY_REQUEST_METHOD=post HEAD_ERROR='raise "Server Error"'

Is the same as

Sinatra::FromRails.convert(:style => :classic, :any_request_method => :post,
                           :head_error => 'raise "Server Error"')

Available Sinatra::FromRails settings with their defaults:

:debug                 DEBUG                 false
:format                FORMAT                html
:style                 STYLE                 classic
:output_file           OUTPUT_FILE           main.rb
:output_dir            OUTPUT_DIR            app/routes
:class_name            CLASS_NAME            Main
:controllers           CONTROLLERS           nil
:ignore_routes         IGNORE_ROUTES         []
:ignore_actions        IGNORE_ACTIONS        []
:any_request_method    ANY_REQUEST_METHOD    post
:render                RENDER                erb
:head_ok               HEAD_OK               halt 200
:head_error            HEAD_ERROR            halt 500

Repeated Generation¶ ↑

To cutdown on having to specify those every time, define a “convert” task in your local tasks file:

# lib/tasks/convert_tasks.rake
namespace :sinatra do
  namespace :from_rails do
    task :convert => :load do
      # Customize this part
      Sinatra::FromRails.convert(:format => :xml, :style => :modular)
    end
  end
end

Then:

rake sinatra:from_rails:convert

Viola!

Background¶ ↑

My team at PlayStation writes a ton of XML/JSON services to interact with PS3/PSP game clients. These need to run fast, and at the view layer, just spit out Builder files. We also use the same Rails stack to provide community features - forums, stats, etc. For these, the extended Rails helpers are a big benefit.

As such, we develop our app in Rails, then use this to spit out a Sinatra app for the XML/JSON services.

Disclaimer¶ ↑

This plugin works about 95%. If you’re scaffolding, you’re good to go. If you have tons of controller code and weird lambda blocks and such you might have troubles. But you don’t have tons of controller code, right? That’s in your models.

Author¶ ↑

Copyright © 2009 Nate Wiger, nate.wiger.org, released under the Artistic License