An exploration of Sinatra file organization.
Currently two branches exist in this repo with their own app structures: basic and multi-app.
This is the simplest file and directory structure that I use. It provides a good structure for small apps, and can be scaled up easily to handle increased complexity.
The main app file, which contains the application class definition and routes. If routes become more complex I create a /routes/ directory and split them into separate files.
require 'bundler'
Bundler.require
class BasicApp < Sinatra::Base
get '/' do
erb :index
end
endThis is the rackup file, which I use to mount and run the application, locally with Shotgun and in production with Phusion Passenger.
require './app'
run BasicAppBundler configuration file for managing gem dependencies.
source 'https://rubygems.org'
gem 'sinatra'Ruby helper methods live here, wrapped up in modules. They are required in app.rb and made available to the Sinatra app using the helpers method.
Static assets are stored in subdirectories including /css/, /images/, /js/.
Creating or overwriting restart.txt will force Sinatra to refresh on the next load, and always_restart.txt will force a reload on every load (this must be removed for production).
Site homepage.
<h1>Basic App Homepage</h1>Default page template.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/app.css"/>
</head>
<body>
<%= yield %>
<script src="/js/app.js"></script>
</body>
</html>In order to make my apps
To manage complexity and maintain a separation of concerns, I create separate Sinatra apps for distinctly different processes or components. I prefer to do this using a single barebones parent Rack app, with a structure like the following.
-
apps/
-
basic-app/ ...
-
second-app/ ...
-
-
config.ru
-
app.rb
-
Gemfile
The following will mount the SecondApp modular app with a root of /second-app/ (http://yourapp.com/second-app). Like Sinatra's routes, Rack routes cascade so '/' will catch all other requests and delegate them to BasicApp.
# app.rb
require 'bundler'
Bundler.require
require './apps/basic-app/app'
require './apps/second-app/app'# config.ru
require './app'
map '/second-app' do
run SecondApp
end
map '/' do
run BasicApp
endAs with all things Sinatra there are a lot of ways to tailor the modular app structure to specific needs.
Some of the more useful resources I've come across on this subject.
[Sinatra README](http://www.sinatrarb.com/intro.htmlt stat:)