How to use Thor::Shell::Basic in a Rails Generator?

Question

I am writing a Rails 3.2 generator and would like to use Thor::Shell::Basic instance methods (eg ask or yes? ) like they do in the official Rails guides on Application Templates .

module MyNamespace
  class ScaffoldGenerator < Rails::Generators::Base
    source_root File.expand_path('../templates', __FILE__)

    if yes? "Install MyGem?"
      gem 'my_gem'
    end

    run 'bundle install'
  end
end

This will give me a NoMethodError: undefined method 'yes?' for MyNamespace::ScaffoldGenerator:Class NoMethodError: undefined method 'yes?' for MyNamespace::ScaffoldGenerator:Class .

I cannot figure out a clean way to make those instance methods available - I am already inheriting from Rails::Generators::Base .

Edit:

Ah, it probably has nothing to do with Thor... I get a warning:

[WARNING] Could not load generator "generators/my_namespace/scaffold/scaffold_generator"

Something is not set up correctly although I used the generator for generating generators...

Answer 1

Oh, yes, it does have to do something with Thor.

Do not let yourself get confused by the warning. You know that Rails::Generators uses Thor, so walk over to the Thor Wiki and check out how Thor tasks work .

The rails generator execution will call any method in your generator. So make sure that you organize your stuff into methods:

module MyNamespace
  class ScaffoldGenerator < Rails::Generators::Base
    source_root File.expand_path('../templates', __FILE__)

    def install_my_gem
      if yes? "Install MyGem?"
        gem 'my_gem'
      end
    end

    def bundle
      run 'bundle install'
    end
  end
end

Be sure to put your generator into the right folder structure, eg lib/generators/my_namespace/scaffold_generator.rb .

Thanks for asking your question, dude!