Ruby on Rails/Plugins

A large portion of the power of Rails comes from the wide range of plugins which are available for download.

Places to Get Plugins

• AgileWebDevelopment Plugin Repository is currently the best location to find out about plugins available for Rails. This web site provides facilities for rating plugins and provides links to the plugin homepage and Subversion repository.
• Rails Wiki Page for Plugins is the wiki page which contains a list of a large number of plugins.
• RailsLodge Plugin Directory is an easy to use plugin directory with sample code on how to install and use each plugin.

Popular Plugins

Since other sites like the one above provide detailed information on plugins this book will not attempt to discuss every one of the popular plugins which are available, however there are some plugins which are used often enough and which are the source of enough questions that they are worth mentioning.

Acts_as_authenticated

This plugin provides a basis for authentication in your Rails app.