Rails Directory Structure | Introduction To Rubyonrails

Introduction

Understanding the Rails directory structure is essential for navigating and organizing your Rails applications efficiently. This guide provides an overview of the main components and their purposes.

Key Points:

The Rails directory structure follows a convention that makes it easy to navigate and maintain applications.
Each directory has a specific purpose, such as storing models, views, controllers, configurations, and more.
This guide covers the main directories and their roles in a Rails application.

Main Directories

When you create a new Rails application, the following directories are generated:

app/: Contains the core components of the application, including models, views, controllers, helpers, mailers, channels, and jobs.
bin/: Stores binary files to set up the application environment and run commands.
config/: Contains configuration files for the application, database, environment settings, and routes.
db/: Contains database schema, migrations, and seeds.
lib/: Holds libraries and modules that extend the application.
log/: Stores application log files.
public/: Contains static files and compiled assets that are served directly by the web server.
test/: Holds test files for the application.
tmp/: Stores temporary files generated by the application.
vendor/: Contains third-party code such as plugins and gems.

app/ Directory

The app/ directory is the heart of your Rails application. It contains several subdirectories:

app/assets/: Contains asset files such as images, JavaScript, and stylesheets.
app/controllers/: Contains controller files that handle requests and responses.
app/helpers/: Contains helper files to assist the view layer.
app/models/: Contains model files that interact with the database.
app/views/: Contains view templates that render HTML.
app/mailers/: Contains mailer files that handle email sending.
app/channels/: Contains WebSocket channels for real-time features.
app/jobs/: Contains background job files.

config/ Directory

The config/ directory holds configuration files for the application:

config/application.rb: Configures settings for the Rails application.
config/database.yml: Specifies database configurations for different environments.
config/routes.rb: Defines the application's routes.
config/environments/: Contains environment-specific configurations (development, test, production).
config/initializers/: Contains initializer files that run during application startup.
config/locales/: Contains localization files for different languages.

db/ Directory

The db/ directory manages the database schema and data:

db/migrate/: Contains migration files that modify the database schema.
db/schema.rb: Contains the current database schema.
db/seeds.rb: Contains seed data to populate the database with initial data.

lib/ Directory

The lib/ directory holds custom libraries and modules:

lib/tasks/: Contains custom Rake tasks.

Other Directories

log/: Stores log files for debugging and monitoring.
public/: Contains static files and compiled assets accessible to the public.
test/: Holds test files to ensure the application works correctly.
tmp/: Stores temporary files like cache and session data.
vendor/: Contains third-party code such as plugins and gems.

Conclusion

Understanding the Rails directory structure is crucial for efficiently developing and maintaining your applications. Each directory has a specific role, helping you organize your code and configuration files systematically.

Ruby on Rails - Rails Directory Structure