CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-railsruby-on-rails-3twitter-bootstrap
Raoot
Raoot

Reputation: 1771

Updating existing rails app to use Twitter Bootstrap?

I've an existing app built around a Themeforest template that is almost ready to launch, however, there are issues with the layout and some cross browser problems. Through experience of using Twitter Bootstrap in other apps i've built from scratch i'd like to move this app over to using Bootstrap as well.

Does anyone know if there's a safe & relatively painless way off migrating things across? I know from other apps where i've used scaffold, the sass files generated mess with bootstrap's styles so i'm pretty certain installing bootstrap with the existing app will cause all manner of nightmares.

In short, can anyone suggest the best approach for ditching my old template layouts/styles and then migrate to bootstrap without rendering the app useless? It would be great if I could somehow run concurrent versions and then switch when i'm happy it's all working in the new 'look'

Upvotes: 1

Views: 452

Answers (1)

edralph
edralph

Reputation: 1831

Are you using git for version control? If so you could clone your local repository:

$ git clone existing_repo bootstrapped_repo

Then hack about with the new repository to your hearts content. When I switched an app recently from Blueprint to Bootstrap it was fairly straightforward; I used the twitter-bootstrap-rails gem, removed all traces of Blueprint and any scaffold-generated css and went through applying new classes etc. Mostly the pain is in having to restructure the app according to the new grid system.

Edit: Whatever approach you decide to take you will have the issue of maintaining new developments, patches etc. Whether this is all in the same instance of the app or not you have to decide whether to freeze other development or do this concurrently.

Another option which would potentially suit a dev model that has ongoing development in it is to branch your repo and do the Bootstrap work within that branch and then merge it with your master branch when you are done. That way you should be able to run concurrent dev with your Bootstrapping project.

There is a lot of stuff out there on successful git branching models:

Hope that helps.

Upvotes: 2

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