Comment: Role of Scaffolding Going Forward

A public service announcement: Since the release of 2.0, there have been numerous questions on the list regarding scaffolding. I attribute this to two factors:

  1. Almost every tutorial uses scaffolding for up-and-running kind of instant gratification
  2. There are some cases where scaffolded CRUD is adequate and devs can focus on more important issues

As of 2.0.x, scaffolding is extracted to a plugin. Moreover, “classic pagination,” on which scaffolding depends has also been extracted. So, to get any measure of the 1.x dynamic scaffolding behavior, you have to install the two plugins.

It may seem like you’re just hunky-dory with scaffolding if you do a:

script/generate scaffold person

but that’s not quite what you might expect. Yeah, it works, but your people index action produces a list that is not paginated. That’s a behavior shift from the 1.x scaffold that utilized pagination.

Ok, to the point of this post. Rails Core has driven a stake in the ground by extracting scaffolding. My interpretation is that they don’t expect to enhance scaffolding, but would prefer to leave it to people who like/use scaffolding.

I don’t use scaffolds at all, but have sympathy for anyone getting into Rails who runs square into a brick wall right at the start of their “introduction to Rails” tutorial. Thus, I have these recommendations:

  • Use Rails 1.x to work through the tutorials if that’s an option. If you don’t none of the automatically generated code will look remotely similar to the 2.x stuff. -or-
  • Read the tutorials about the scaffolding but don’t type in any of the code because it’s likely not to work in 2.x, then take the concepts you learn from your quiet-time reading and apply them to a 2.x project. -or-
  • Repeat the previous step and then look into something like the ActiveScaffold plugin (http://activescaffold.com/). Again, the code will not look like what’s in your tutorials, but at least ActiveScaffold hasn’t been pushed off into the weeds. -or-
  • (Not recommended) Use Rails 2.x, and install the scaffolding plugin (script/plugin installhttp://dev.rubyonrails.org/browser/plugins/scaffolding)) and the classic pagination plugin (script/plugin install svn://errtheblog.com/svn/plugins/classic_pagination).

So many choices, so little time. What to do? I suggest reading quietly, then blundering around with 2.x until you feel comfortable that you’ve gotten a “hello, world” working without the safety net of scaffolding.

I hope this helps.

I agree. Skip it. Waste of time to learn it or use it.

Hi Greg,

Greg Donald wrote:

Waste of time to learn it or use it.

I disagree. One of Rails' fundamental differentiators is 'convention over configuration.' Until 2.0, scaffolding has, IMHO, played a key role as a concrete example of that differentiator. Not only has it given newbies a 'leg up' in terms of productivity, it served a role in familiarizing them with Rails' naming / coding conventions. I personally am very sorry to see it relegated to a lesser role.

Best regards, Bill

I agree that convention over configuration is a key to finding your way in Rails. I'm not so sure I buy the notion that scaffolding, and particularly dynamic scaffolding, help infuse people with that convention_fu. Given the fact that static (script/generate scaffold) is still around, anyone who wants to see the new an even keener way of scaffolding hello world can do:

$ rails hello_world $ script/generate scaffold hellos

In terms of productivity, my experience is that scaffolding can be a two-edged sword. On one hand, you can show something that works right away. Clients think you walk on water. The crowd cheers. Then everyone waits while you really learn Rails and hammer out the details. And they wonder why it's taking so long -- after all, you were so promising your first day on the job. And the crowd goes quiet.

There are, as I said in my original post, several scaffolding plugins that really get the job done. I don't use scaffolding but if I needed it, I would turn to ActiveScaffold or something like that before than I would turn to the Rails plugin. Similarly, I would look to will_paginate (svn://errtheblog.com/svn/plugins/will_paginate) or paginating_find (Welcome cardboardrocket.com - BlueHost.com).

One alternative that I should have stressed in my initial post is the extraction of certain repetitive code patterns as embodied in the make_resourceful or resource_controller plugins. They do build convention_fu, while at the same time allowing you to get your job done in less time.

This is all, again, just my $.02.

--steve

I believe there needs to be more tutorials about 2.0 to drown out all the ones that use older versions.