Effectively Renaming a Rails Project

Question

What is the most effective, secure and easiest way to rename a Ruby on Rails 3 project?

Please improve your question by posting some [properly formatted](http://stackoverflow.com/editing-help) code you've applied to the problem, and all **relevant** error messages exactly as they appear. — Todd A. Jacobs, Mar 23 '13 at 20:42
I'm not even sure what that actually means; what do you want to rename? — Dave Newton, Mar 23 '13 at 21:37
I don't think this question requires any additional information. When you create a project with `rails new projectname`, it affects the config in various ways. That is the project name. @Paulo wants to change it. — Jim Stewart, Mar 23 '13 at 22:39
This is a duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/q/3270373/ and http://stackoverflow.com/q/4383670/ — awendt, Mar 23 '13 at 22:56
@awendt these questions talks about Ruby on Rail 2; mine, is about Rails 3 — sonnuforevis, Mar 24 '13 at 01:23
A better solution for Rails5 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42326432/how-to-rename-a-rails-5-application — Shane G, May 17 '20 at 21:44

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 23 '13 at 22:49

There's a Rails plugin called Rename that does this. It hasn't been updated in 2 years, but it appears to mostly work. It screws up CamelCaseNames, but in a consistent way.

Optionally, just do a grep like in my example, and change those files manually (see below for list of files).

$ rails new ProjectToRename
$ cd ProjectToRename
$ grep -ri 'project_?to_?rename' .

./config/routes.rb:ProjectToRename::Application.routes.draw do
./config/application.rb:module ProjectToRename
./config/initializers/session_store.rb:ProjectToRename::Application.config.session_store :cookie_store, key: '_ProjectToRename_session'
./config/initializers/session_store.rb:# ProjectToRename::Application.config.session_store :active_record_store
./config/initializers/secret_token.rb:ProjectToRename::Application.config.secret_token = '69761de6e4534f0be37fbebee8e03f1e29d6935e12591444971bccc134503d390cb8b5587d7750a53cc428d3d57a5894437e4b148611623a7f0ff5048aeb4579'
./config/environment.rb:ProjectToRename::Application.initialize!
./config/environments/production.rb:ProjectToRename::Application.configure do
./config/environments/development.rb:ProjectToRename::Application.configure do
./config/environments/test.rb:ProjectToRename::Application.configure do
./app/views/layouts/application.html.erb:  <title>ProjectToRename</title>
./Rakefile:ProjectToRename::Application.load_tasks
./config.ru:run ProjectToRename::Application

$ rails plugin install git@github.com:get/Rename.git
$ rails g rename_to SomeNewName
$ grep -ri 'some_?new_?name' .

./config/routes.rb:Somenewname::Application.routes.draw do
./config/application.rb:module Somenewname
./config/initializers/session_store.rb:Somenewname::Application.config.session_store :cookie_store, key: '_ProjectToRename_session'
./config/initializers/session_store.rb:# Somenewname::Application.config.session_store :active_record_store
./config/initializers/secret_token.rb:Somenewname::Application.config.secret_token = '69761de6e4534f0be37fbebee8e03f1e29d6935e12591444971bccc134503d390cb8b5587d7750a53cc428d3d57a5894437e4b148611623a7f0ff5048aeb4579'
./config/environment.rb:Somenewname::Application.initialize!
./config/environments/production.rb:Somenewname::Application.configure do
./config/environments/development.rb:Somenewname::Application.configure do
./config/environments/test.rb:Somenewname::Application.configure do
./Rakefile:Somenewname::Application.load_tasks
./config.ru:run Somenewname::Application

You'll need to rename the top-level directory yourself:

$ cd ..
$ mv ProjectToRename SomeNewName

what should i run first: the plugin or the grep command? note that i'm looking for a "smooth operation"... — sonnuforevis, Mar 24 '13 at 01:25
`grep` doesn't change anything. It just searches. You don't have to run it at all. — Jim Stewart, Mar 24 '13 at 02:03
A better solution for Rails5 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42326432/how-to-rename-a-rails-5-application — Shane G, May 17 '20 at 21:44

Effectively Renaming a Rails Project

1 Answers1