CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2009/wiki1b 9 ad

Scaffolding in web application frameworks

Scaffolding is a meta-programming method of building database-backed software applications. It is a technique that allows a programmer to qickly generate a skeleton interface that allows the user to perform basic CRUD ( Create Read Update Delete) operations on the application's database. The auto-generated interface can then me modified to perform more powerful tasks.

Why was dynamic scaffolding removed in Rails 2?

Dynamic Scaffolding of Rails 1.x was replaced by a generator of scaffolds in Rails 2.

David Heinemeier Hansson responding to a new rails developer on a Ruby forum said "Dynamic Scaffolding didn't really help people learn about Rails or give them a way to modify the generated interface, so we killed it.". In dynamic scaffolding when the line scaffold :model_name is added to the controller ruby automatically generates the appropriate interfaces at run time. Since, scaffolding is implemented on the fly the programmer cannot easily modify and customize the interfaces.Therefore, dynamic scaffolding was removed in Rails 2 though it is still available as a plugin.

Pros and cons of Dynamic Scaffolding

Pros: The biggest advatage of Dynamic scaffolding is that it allows the programmer to extend and modify the database schema without worrying about reflecting those changes in the interface. The user interface automatically updates to keep up with the changes.

Cons: The biggest disadvantage of Dynamic scaffolding is that the programmer cannot see whats going on. Since all the interfaces are generated on the fly, the code hidden and this could be especially disadvantageous to someone who is trying to learn Rails.