Rails Plugins
I’m a bit of a plugin hound. I really like the approach of Rails plugins because they force the implementor to offer up small ideas in a concise package. Also, plugins are easy to grok. Generally you can spend a small amount of time investigating what’s in the lib directory and get the essesense of the implementation. Often you can learn alot by looking at the plugin code. There’s some pretty impressive code out there. That said, not all plugins are created equal.
Some come without documentation. Many come without tests. You have to be aware of the code that you’re injecting into your Rails application. Does it play nicely with what else is going on in your app, or does it take more of a brute force approach? All of these things become important in the decision to use a plugin or not. Do you recognize and trust the author? What level of dependency will your application have on the plugin. In other words, if you need to upgrade Rails and the plugin is not longer supported, what impact will that have on your application?
Plugins are a great tool and there’s a tremendous number of plugins in the wild. But not all plugins are the same. Be smart about what you choose to use. Figure out a good list of criteria that works for you, and evaluate accordingly.
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