The Rails Engines Book

About Me

My name is James Adam, and I am a Rubyist. I've been building software with Ruby since 2002, and working with Rails since the early releases in 2005.

I wrote the original Rails Engines plugin in 2006, and have spoken about Rails Engines at many conferences. I have spent years advising people about what Rails Engines are good for, and where they might not be a great fit.

However, a whole new generation of Rails developers are encountering the moderm implementation of Engines in Rails 3 and 4, and many haven't had a chance to learn from this rich history of how best to use the Engines approach.

About the book

I'm still fleshing out the table of contents, but I expect the book will cover at least the following:

• Creating a Rails Engine
• Package an Engine for re-use
• Building an Engine with configuration in mind
• Handling migrations sensibly with Engines
• Isolating Engines from application code

All content will come with code examples, but more importantly with advice about when to dangers and pitfalls that inappropriate use can bring. Like it says in the comic: with great power comes great responsibility!

If there's a topic that you feel should be a part of the book, please get in touch! Email me at with your thoughts and suggestions.