Sinatra app template

This is my template for a simple Sinatra app (with current dependency versions as of 2020-06).

I took a lot of ideas and inspiration from the following projects, but in the end I did not like any of them enough to just use their output:

• Hazel
• Corneal
• sinatra-template

The dependencies are trimmed down pretty much, that means you probably still have to take care of the following things:

• Persistence: No ORM/ODM is included by default, you can use ActiveRecord, DataMapper, Sequel, MongoID or whatever you like.
• Templating:
  • Only ERB (and JSON) is supported by default, you need to add haml(it) or similar if you want to use other template languages.
  • We use Erubi for ERB rendering with escape_html: true, which means <%= foo %> will escape HTML by default. Use <%== foo %> if you know that foo produces safe HTML.

I've kept the directory structure somewhat close to Rails (because a lot of people will be familiar with that), that means:

• Files in config/initializers are loaded once initially at application startup.
• config/environment configures the necessary basics.
• The main application sources are located under app/.
  • Views are loaded from app/views.
• You can start the app with bundle exec rackup, bin/rackup or foreman start (but the latter somehow breaks pry).
• Specs are placed under spec, each spec should use require_relative 'spec_helper'.
  • You can start the specs normally with bundle exec rspec or bin/rspec.
• There's a rake console target to give you a console with access to the whole project.
• Files in public are served directly under /.

I've also included:

• dotenv for environment configuration
• Sinatra::Reloader for live reloading
• Sinatra::Json for JSON output
• A Dockerfile to make deploying this easy
• MVP.css for some simple styling

In the end this is all just based on my personal preference, so don't expect this to be the perfect template for your own use case.