<ahref="#_rails_metal_applications">Rails Metal Applications</a>
<ul>
<li><ahref="#_generating_a_metal_application">Generating a Metal Application</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<ahref="#_changelog">Changelog</a>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<divid="content">
<h1>Rails on Rack</h1>
<divid="preamble">
<divclass="sectionbody">
<divclass="paragraph"><p>This guide covers Rails integration with Rack and interfacing with other Rack components. By referring to this guide, you will be able to:</p></div>
Understand the best practices for developing a middleware aimed at Rails applications
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<divclass="admonitionblock">
<table><tr>
<tdclass="icon">
<imgsrc="./images/icons/note.png"alt="Note"/>
</td>
<tdclass="content">This guide assumes a working knowledge of Rack protocol and Rack concepts such as middlewares</td>
</tr></table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2id="_introduction_to_rack">1. Introduction to Rack</h2>
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<divclass="sidebarblock">
<divclass="sidebar-content">
<divclass="paragraph"><p>Rack provides a minimal, modular and adaptable interface for developing web applications in Ruby. By wrapping HTTP requests and responses in the simplest way possible, it unifies and distills the API for web servers, web frameworks, and software in between (the so-called middleware) into a single method call.</p></div>
<divclass="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
<ahref="http://rack.rubyforge.org/doc">Rack API Documentation</a>
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div></div>
<divclass="paragraph"><p>Explaining Rack is not really in the scope of this guide. In case you are not familiar with Rack’s basics, you should check out the following links:</p></div>
<divclass="paragraph"><p><tt>ActionController::Dispatcher.new</tt> is the primary Rack application object of a Rails application. It responds to <tt>call</tt> method with a single <tt>env</tt> argument and returns a Rack response. Any Rack compliant web server should be using <tt>ActionController::Dispatcher.new</tt> object to serve a Rails application.</p></div>
<h3id="_script_server">2.2. script/server</h3>
<divclass="paragraph"><p><tt>script/server</tt> does the basic job of creating a <tt>Rack::Builder</tt> object and starting the webserver. This is Rails equivalent of Rack’s <tt>rackup</tt> script.</p></div>
<divclass="paragraph"><p>Here’s how <tt>script/server</tt> creates an instance of <tt>Rack::Builder</tt></p></div>
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<divclass="content"><!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 2.9
<divclass="paragraph"><p>Middlewares used in the code above are most useful in development envrionment. The following table explains their usage:</p></div>
<divclass="paragraph"><p>To use <tt>rackup</tt> instead of Rails' <tt>script/server</tt>, you can put the following inside <tt>config.ru</tt> of your Rails application’s root directory:</p></div>
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<divclass="content"><!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 2.9
<divclass="paragraph"><p>Many of Action Controller’s internal components are implemented as Rack middlewares. <tt>ActionController::Dispatcher</tt> uses <tt>ActionController::MiddlewareStack</tt> to combine various internal and external middlewares to form a complete Rails Rack application.</p></div>
<divclass="admonitionblock">
<table><tr>
<tdclass="icon">
<imgsrc="./images/icons/note.png"alt="Note"/>
</td>
<tdclass="content">
<divclass="title">What is ActionController::MiddlewareStack ?</div><tt>ActionController::MiddlewareStack</tt> is Rails equivalent of <tt>Rack::Builder</tt>, but built for better flexibility and more features to meet Rails' requirements.</td>
<h2id="_rails_metal_applications">4. Rails Metal Applications</h2>
<divclass="sectionbody">
<divclass="paragraph"><p>Rails Metal applications are minimal Rack applications specially designed for integrating with a typical Rails applications. As Rails Metal Applications skip all of the Action Controller stack, serving a request has no overhead from the Rails framework itself. This is especially useful for infrequent cases where the performance of the full stack Rails framework is an issue.</p></div>
<h3id="_generating_a_metal_application">4.1. Generating a Metal Application</h3>
<divclass="paragraph"><p>Rails provides a generator called <tt>performance_test</tt> for creating new performance tests:</p></div>
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<divclass="content"><!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 2.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre><tt>script/generate metal poller</tt></pre></div></div>
<divclass="paragraph"><p>This generates <tt>poller.rb</tt> in the <tt>app/metal</tt> directory:</p></div>
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<divclass="content"><!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 2.9
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre><tt><spanstyle="font-style: italic"><spanstyle="color: #9A1900"># Allow the metal piece to run in isolation</span></span>
<divclass="paragraph"><p>Metal applications are an optimization. You should make sure to <ahref="http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2008/12/20/performance-of-rails-metal">understand the related performance implications</a> before using it.</p></div>
* Understand the best practices for developing a middleware aimed at Rails applications
NOTE: This guide assumes a working knowledge of Rack protocol and Rack concepts such as middlewares, url maps and Rack::Builder.
== Introduction to Rack ==
****
Rack provides a minimal, modular and adaptable interface for developing web applications in Ruby. By wrapping HTTP requests and responses in the simplest way possible, it unifies and distills the API for web servers, web frameworks, and software in between (the so-called middleware) into a single method call.
- http://rack.rubyforge.org/doc[Rack API Documentation]
****
Explaining Rack is not really in the scope of this guide. In case you are not familiar with Rack's basics, you should check out the following links:
* http://m.onkey.org/2008/11/17/ruby-on-rack-1[Ruby on Rack #1 - Hello Rack!]
* http://m.onkey.org/2008/11/18/ruby-on-rack-2-rack-builder[Ruby on Rack #2 - The Builder]
== Rails on Rack ==
=== ActionController::Dispatcher.new ===
+ActionController::Dispatcher.new+ is the primary Rack application object of a Rails application. It responds to +call+ method with a single +env+ argument and returns a Rack response. Any Rack compliant web server should be using +ActionController::Dispatcher.new+ object to serve a Rails application.
=== script/server ===
+script/server+ does the basic job of creating a +Rack::Builder+ object and starting the webserver. This is Rails equivalent of Rack's +rackup+ script.
Here's how +script/server+ creates an instance of +Rack::Builder+
Many of Action Controller's internal components are implemented as Rack middlewares. +ActionController::Dispatcher+ uses +ActionController::MiddlewareStack+ to combine various internal and external middlewares to form a complete Rails Rack application.
.What is ActionController::MiddlewareStack ?
NOTE: +ActionController::MiddlewareStack+ is Rails equivalent of +Rack::Builder+, but built for better flexibility and more features to meet Rails' requirements.
=== Adding Middlewares ===
Rails provides a very simple configuration interface for adding generic Rack middlewares to a Rails applications.
Here's how you can add middlewares via +environment.rb+
Rails Metal applications are minimal Rack applications specially designed for integrating with a typical Rails application. As Rails Metal Applications skip all of the Action Controller stack, serving a request has no overhead from the Rails framework itself. This is especially useful for infrequent cases where the performance of the full stack Rails framework is an issue.
=== Generating a Metal Application ===
Rails provides a generator called +performance_test+ for creating new performance tests:
Metal applications are an optimization. You should make sure to http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2008/12/20/performance-of-rails-metal[understand the related performance implications] before using it.
