ApplicationController refactoring

[goosys]

I fully understand that this might be overly presumptuous, and I truly don’t mean to overstep, but I’d really like to refactor the ApplicationController.

Here are some reasons why:

• Improved maintainability
  • The current ApplicationController has many methods, making it difficult to read and maintain.
  • The order of methods is not well-structured, making it hard to identify which method belongs to which functionality.
  • Many action methods are too fat, requiring developers to copy entire methods for partial customization, which leads to inconsistencies during version upgrades.
  • I'd like to remove methods that are unrelated to CRUD (e.g., view-related methods).
• Better customization
  • Methods should be split into single-responsibility functions so developers can override only the necessary parts.
  • Built-in features like Kaminari, search, and filtering should be easily replaceable with alternatives like Pagy or Ransack.
  • Developers should be able to pick and include only the necessary modules from concerns to create a custom ApplicationController.
• Enhanced functionality
  • Support multiple response formats using respond_to, allowing responses like JSON or render turbo_stream: for Hotwire.
  • Make it possible to use Administrate’s advanced CRUD functionalities for building API controllers.

I’ve done a simple experiment, and ideally, it should look something like this: goosys@20cf3a7
https://github.com/goosys/administrate/blob/labo/application_controller_refactoring/app/controllers/administrate/application_controller.rb
https://github.com/goosys/administrate/tree/labo/application_controller_refactoring/app/controllers/concerns/administrate

With this level of simplicity (around 7 methods, ~70 lines), even if developers create their own custom ApplicationController, they won’t have major conflicts with the latest codebase, or at least the necessary adjustments will be minimal.

Again, I genuinely don’t mean to be intrusive, but I really believe this would be beneficial. I’d love to hear your thoughts! 🙏

[goosys]

@nickcharlton @pablobm
This was just a quick commit where I split things up in a few hours without much thought, but strangely enough, the application works perfectly, and all tests passed. Honestly, I find it a bit mysterious. 🤔
https://github.com/goosys/administrate/tree/labo/application_controller_refactoring

Would you be open to trying it out and seeing how it feels?

[nickcharlton]

In general, I support the idea of making improvements here.

Built-in features like Kaminari, search, and filtering should be easily replaceable with alternatives like Pagy or Ransack.

Something I've wanted to do is to make these three "pluggable" in some manner. Pagination libraries is an obvious one (we're fixed to Kaminari, but I know people often pick Pagy now for their main application), but it'd be great to do the same to search too.

I think we'd be best to go about these three as features which happen to make improvements to ApplicationController as part of them, as that means we can make the changes incrementally.

the application works perfectly, and all tests passed. Honestly, I find it a bit mysterious.

This sort of thing always makes me incredibly suspicious 😂

I'll make sure to try it out once I get some more time. Thanks!