Thematic

Plugin that adds support for themes to Ruby on Rails websites.

Overview

The thematic plugin modifies the Rails ActionView::Helpers::AssetTagHelper module so that asset paths (e.g. /stylesheets/style.css) can be written to include dynamic named themes (e.g. /stylesheets/my_theme/style.css). This theme name is only included when the active controller implements the :theme method.

The plugin also includes controllers for each of the asset types, and some automagic routing to make sure everything works. Basically, a request for an asset is handled by the respective controller, returned and cached. The request URL is used for caching, so the returned asset is written to the public folder, and next time it is requested, it is handled by the webserver and not Rails.

Themes are installed in the themes folder in the root directory of the Rails application tree, for example:

RAILS_ROOT/
+ themes/
  + my_theme/
    + public/
      + images/      # images (.gif, .jpeg, .jpg and .png)
      + javascripts/ # scripts (.js)
      + stylesheets/ # static/compiled stylesheets (.css)
    + stylesheets    # CSS sources (.sass) - you're using Sass, aren't you?
    + views/         # view templates
      + layouts/     # view layout templates
      + posts/       # controller/action templates and partial templates, etc.

Getting Started

Install the plugin:

script/plugin install git://github.com/accuser/thematic.git

Generate thematic support:

script/generate thematic

Generate a theme:

script/generate theme my_theme

Add a theme selector method to your ApplicationController:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  theme 'my_theme'
end

or:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  theme :choose_theme
  
  def choose_theme
    if request.host =~ /^mobile/
      'mobile'
    end
  end
end

Add public assets, Sass stylesheet templates, views, etc. to your theme.

Rake Tasks

Themaitc includes a couple of Rake tasks for your pleasure:

rake themes:list

Show a list of installed themes.

rake themes:cache:expire

Remove all cached theme files (images, scripts, stylesheets) from the public folder.

Roadmap

• Add support for installing themes a la script/plugin.
• Add support for child themes

Copyright (c) 2009 Matthew Gibbons, released under the MIT license