Getting Started

Basic Projects

Be sure to read the Installation instructions first. You might also want to check out the Why Learn Padrino? guide for a better understanding of Sinatra and Padrino if you are new to the stack.

Generating a Project

To generate a new Padrino project using its defaults (RSpec for testing and Haml for rendering) and no database adapter, simply invoke the following command:

$ padrino g project my_project

Padrino has also built-in support for several different mocking, testing, rendering, ORM, and JavaScript components.

$ padrino g project custom_project -t rspec -d activerecord -s jquery

For a breakdown of all the available components options please refer to the Generators page.

Persistence Engine

Whenever you are creating a new project, Padrino will assume by default that a database is not required for your project.

To add support for a persistence engine, specify a supported ORM of your choice to use by flagging the padrino g command with the -d option followed by the name of your ORM:

$ padrino g project your_project -d mongoid
$ padrino g project your_project -d activerecord
$ padrino g project your_project -d datamapper
$ padrino g project your_project -d couchrest
$ padrino g project your_project -d mongomatic
$ padrino g project your_project -d ohm
$ padrino g project your_project -d ripple
$ padrino g project your_project -d sequel
$ padrino g project your_project -d dynamoid

For the SQL-based persistence engines, you can even specify the RDBMS adapter to use with the -a option followed by the name of the adapter:

$ padrino g project your_project -d datamapper   -a mysql    # Uses Datamapper and MySQL
$ padrino g project your_project -d activerecord -a postgres # Uses ActiveRecord and Postgres
$ padrino g project your_project -d sequel       -a sqlite   # Uses Sequel and Sqlite3

The adapters currently supported are sqlite, mysql, and postgres for use with datamapper, activerecord, or sequel.

Generating Applications

Padrino's main concept is to generate a default "project" or "core application":

$ padrino g project my_project

You can then add, if needed, sub-applications to your existing Padrino "project":

$ cd my_project
$ padrino g app gallery

You can also generate your own controllers, mailers, models, etc. for your "gallery" app as well.

$ padrino g controller sample get:index --app gallery

Whenever generating a "mounted" app, Padrino will mount that application automatically. As a reference, the above example "gallery" application will be mounted to: /gallery.

You can easily change and configure your "mounted" application path and decide where your applications will be mounted, by editing your config/apps.rb file.

Generating the Admin Section

Let's start by creating a new Padrino project using Active Record:

$ padrino g project blog -d activerecord

Install all project dependencies:

$ cd blog
$ bundle # if you haven't that command, run 'gem install bundler'

Padrino ships with a beautiful Admin interface.

Remember that Padrino has been principally structured and designed for mounting multiple applications at the same time. Under this perspective, our admin section is nothing but a new Padrino application:

$ padrino g admin -e slim

Beside slim, you can also use erb or haml. You need to configure your database settings in config/database.rb and run your migrations to add tables and columns to your database:

$ bundle exec rake db:create
$ bundle exec rake db:migrate

Create your first admin account; this is easily achieved by seeding your database with default admin data, stored in your seed.rb file:

$ bundle exec rake db:seed

You will see this in your terminal:

Which email do you want use to log into admin? info@padrino.local
Tell me the password to use: foobar

=================================================================
Account has been successfully created, now you can login with:
=================================================================
   email: info@padrino.local
   password: ******
=================================================================

You are now ready to start your webserver:

$ padrino start

Point your browser to http://localhost:3000/admin and log in by using the email and password provided while seeding your database:

Adding a model

Let's add a new Post model to our blog:

$ padrino g model post name:string body:text

Run the migrations to add database table columns to our database for our newly created Post model:

$ bundle exec rake db:migrate

Create a new admin section for managing (creating, updating, deleting) our blog posts:

$ padrino g admin_page post

That's all! Start your webserver and begin adding some posts.

last updated: 2022-02-22