Rostra allows you to quickly add a question and answer forum to your application. Requires Rails 3.1 and Ruby 1.9.2.

NOTE: Rostra is not production ready.

Installation

Include the gem to your Gemfile:

gem 'rostra'

Mount the engine in config/routes.rb:

mount Rostra::Engine => "/rostra"   # or whatever path you like

Install and run the necessary migrations:

rake rostra:install:migrations
rake db:migrate

Run the generator to create config/initializers/rostra.rb and app/helpers/application_helper.rb:

rails generate rostra:install

Call rostra in your user model:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  rostra
end

Basic configuration

There’s some stuff you’ll almost definitely want to do in order to get Rostra working correctly for your app. First, set the default_url_options for your app. In each of your config/environment files you should have something like:

config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { :host => 'test.com' }         # test.rb
config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { :host => 'localhost:3000' }   # development.rb
config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { :host => 'your_domain.com' }  # production.rb

Also, be sure to read through config/initializers/rostra.rb and override configuration options to suit your app. At the very least, you’ll want to change:

config.deliver_emails_from = 'change_me@example.com'

Finally, have a look at app/helpers/rostra/application_helper.rb, you may need to add/override helper methods.

Overriding models

Rostra provides a DSL for adding application specific logic to Rostra::Question and Rostra:Answer:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  rostra do
    questions do
      # Code inside this block will be evaluated in the context of `Rostra::Question`.

      # So an instance method might look like:
      #
      def active?
        # call this like @question.active?
      end
    end

    answers do
      # Code inside this block will be evaluated in the context of `Rostra::Answer`

      # So a class method might look like:
      #
      def self.recently_up_voted
        # call this like Rostra::Answer.recently_up_voted
      end
    end

  end
end

Overriding Controllers

Added instructions for overriding controllers here (including generators!)

Setting permissions

Under the hood, Rostra uses CanCan to set permissions. By default anyone can read rostra content - even if they are not logged in. A user can contribute content (i.e. ask questions, give answers, and leave comments) as long as they’ve logged in.

If you need to change these defaults, override can_participate_in_rostra? in your user model. CanCan will use this method to determine who can participate. If you need to specify even more complicated permissions, override app/models/rostra/ability.rb and go wild.

Contributing to Rostra

Fork the project, make your changes, and submit a pull request. Please ensure the tests pass:

rspec spec         # runs the specs
cucumber features  # runs the cukes

Contributors: robertwalsh0, bcody

License

This project uses MIT-LICENSE.