Schienenzeppelin

The Ruby on Rails app generator to get you started quickly. Includes TailwindCSS, Devise, Capistrano and much more. Check out these screenshots and What's in the Box to find out more.

Getting Started

Install the Schienenzeppelin gem:

gem install schienenzeppelin

Make sure you have Ruby and Yarn installed. Then run:

sz <app-name>

What's in the Box?

Loads of things!

Schienenzeppelin provides you with a ready-to-go Rails app that you can take to production in a matter of minutes. It comes pre-configured with several gems and utilities that - while kind of standard - are not included in the default Rails app generator. Some highlights include:

• Fully responsive pages using TailwindCSS and High Voltage out of the box. And custom scaffolds to boot! :sparkles:
• Authentication & Authorization comes standard. Starting your app with Schienenzeppelin means Devise is already set up :+1:
• Dockerized everything. That includes a Dockerfile to get you started with containerizing your app, and a docker-compose-powered development environment :whale:
• Deploying your app is easy as pie. All the basic Capistrano configuration is done already, just put in your server location and you are off to the races :rocket:

Frontend

The nice thing about Schienenzeppelin is that it sets you up with basic pages that don't look like garbage - allowing you to focus on other things than design.

Curious what that looks like? Check out these screenshots.

Tailwind CSS

Schienenzeppelin comes pre-configured with tailwindcss-rails. We provide several UI components as a starting point in app/javascript/stylesheets/components.scss - easy to adapt, and easy to add your own.

Custom Views

High Voltage offers an easy way to add static pages - no controllers needed. Out of the box, Schienenzeppelin provides a mobile-friendly home page and an improved application layout.

Custom Scaffold

Schienenzeppelin adds a bunch of scaffolds that you adapt to suit your own needs in lib/scaffolds. These scaffolds take advantage of Tailwind to match the look of the rest of your application.

Turbo

Hotwire is the new hotness. Starting with Schienenzeppelin means that Hotwire and its components such as Stimulus are already added to your application.

Schienenzeppelin also takes advantage of Tailwind-Stimulus-Components to provide interactive componenets (Dropdowns, Alerts...) out of the box.

Backend

Modern web apps need tons of functionality out of the box. Authentication, Authorization, APIs and much more. Schienenzeppelin comes with some basics to get you started quickly.

Authentication

Devise is already configured if you start your application with Schienenzeppelin. For a smooth first start, db/seeds.rb create an admin user, and your navigation bar already contains links where users can sign in or sign up.

Authorization

Pundit provides a simple way to encapsulate authorization logic in your application. You can add new policies to the app/policies folder. To generate a new policy run rails generate pundit:policy.

Background Jobs

Schienenzeppelin per default foregoes ActiveJob in favor of Sidekiq.

OJ

To serialize and deserialize to and from Json OJ is pretty much standard. Schienenzeppelin already comes pre-configured with it.

JB

For rendering JSON views we use JB instead of JBuilder, as it is both faster and simpler to use.

Service Objects

Service Objects are a simple, straight-forward way to encapsulate your business logic and keep your controllers and models nice and slim.

Schienenzeppelin provides a basic service object base class you can inherit from to add your own service objects in app/services.

Development

Setup Script

A setup script that allows for easy setup of the application on a new machine is provided. It is automatically tailored to your specific app configuration.

Start Script

Once you have set up everything your application can be started with a single command-line call - using Foreman. All necessary procfiles are generated.

Better Rails Console

Schienenzeppelin comes with a custom .irbrc that adds history and syntax completion. Factory Bot methods will also be available in the console.

Annotate

Annotate adds comments to your models to show the current table schema. Automatically run during each migration.

Database

PostgreSQL is already configured if you start your app - in such a way that it plays nicely with other utilities such as dotenv and docker-compose too!

Dotenv

Dotenv is a nifty gem that makes environment variables easier to manage.

Docker

Docker is incredibly helpful when developing and deploying your application. Schienenzeppelin provides a docker-compose file as well as an optimized Dockerfile (with complementary .dockerignore) to get you started.

Version Manager Support

We added support for the asdf version manager. A .tool-versions file is automatically included in your app.

Improved Gitignore

Schienenzeppelin provides a custom .gitignore that is tailored to your app.

Rubocop

Creating your app with Schienenzeppelin will automatically add Rubocop and a minimal set of Rubocop rules for both your production and test code.

Improved Credentials

While Rails secrets are usually prepared for development, Schienezeppelin sets up everything for production as well.

Rspec

Rspec and its helpers rspec-mocks and shoulda come standard.

Factorybot

Factorybot provides an easy way to create test data.

Deployment & CI

Github Actions

Schienenzeppelin already comes with a workflow file that should cover your basic need. A good starting point for further customization.

Capistrano

Capistrano is already set up. Deploy to a server of your choice with minimal effort.

FAQ

Why another template generator?

I wanted something that fits the way I like to write my Rails app. There are many application templates, but this one is mine.

What's with the German gibberish name?

I'm so glad you asked. The Schienenzeppelin was an experimental railcar that was briefly in operation during the 1930s. It was pretty fast, and it ran on Rails. Get it? :zany_face:

Credits

This idea is nothing new, and there are tons of other projects I took inspiration from.

Special shout out to Chris Oliver, whose Jumpstart Pro is crazy good. You should get it.

Suspenders was where I first came across the idea to try my hand at custom template generators.