Base Rails 8 Template

A clean Rails 8 starter template with:

• Importmap, Turbo, and Stimulus
• Bootstrap 5 layout inspired by SB Admin
• Font Awesome icons
• Auth, authorization, uploads, pagination, markdown, and more
• Ready-to-use dashboard-style UI structure

This project is intended as a solid foundation for admin panels, SaaS backends, and internal tools.

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Stack Overview

Core

• Ruby: 3.2.x
• Rails: ~> 8.0.1
• Database: PostgreSQL (pg)
• App server: Puma

Frontend

• Bootstrap: via bootstrap gem (5.x) + Importmap for JS
• Font Awesome: font-awesome-sass
• Icons & UI: SB Admin–style layout components
• JS tooling:
  • importmap-rails
  • turbo-rails
  • stimulus-rails
  • sprockets-rails for classic asset pipeline
• Charts:
  • chart.js via Importmap pin (for dashboards)
• Optional:
  • jQuery via Importmap (for legacy/SB scripts if needed)

Backend & Features

• Authentication: Devise
• Authorization: CanCanCan
• File Uploads: CarrierWave
• Image Processing: MiniMagick + image_processing
• Pagination: Kaminari
• Markdown: Redcarpet
• Rich Text / WYSIWYG (legacy): wysihtml5-rails
• CKEditor 5: ckeditor5
• Config / ENV: dotenv-rails
• JSON APIs: Jbuilder
• Performance: bootsnap

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Key Gems

Some of the main gems in this template:

• rails: Full-stack web framework.
• bootstrap: Bootstrap 5 for styling and layout.
• font-awesome-sass: Font Awesome icons via SASS.
• importmap-rails: Manage JS dependencies without Node/Webpack.
• turbo-rails: Turbo-powered navigation and updates.
• stimulus-rails: Modest JavaScript for dynamic behavior.
• devise: Authentication.
• cancancan: Authorization.
• carrierwave: File uploads.
• mini_magick & image_processing: Image processing.
• kaminari: Pagination.
• redcarpet: Markdown rendering.
• dotenv-rails: Environment variables.
• jbuilder: JSON views.

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JavaScript (Importmap)

config/importmap.rb pins (excerpt):

pin "application"
pin "@rails/ujs", to: "https://ga.jspm.io/npm:@rails/ujs@7.0.1/lib/assets/compiled/rails-ujs.js"
pin "@hotwired/turbo-rails", to: "turbo.min.js"
pin "@hotwired/stimulus", to: "stimulus.min.js"
pin "@hotwired/stimulus-loading", to: "stimulus-loading.js"
pin_all_from "app/javascript/controllers", under: "controllers"

pin "@popperjs/core", to: "popper.js", preload: true
pin "bootstrap", to: "bootstrap.min.js", preload: true
pin "jquery", to: "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/jquery@3.6.0/dist/jquery.min.js"
pin "chart.js/auto", to: "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/chart.js@4.4.1/dist/chart.umd.js", preload: true

pin "sb-admin-2", to: "sb-admin-2.js"
pin "dashboard", to: "dashboard.js"
pin "topbar_badges", to: "topbar_badges.js"

app/javascript/application.js (expected pattern):

import "@hotwired/turbo-rails"
import "@hotwired/stimulus-loading"
import "controllers"

import "bootstrap"
import "sb-admin-2"
import "dashboard"
import "topbar_badges"

Ensure the layout includes:

<%= javascript_importmap_tags %>

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Database Setup (Using Schema Load)

This template is designed to work from schema.rb only.

Migrations in the repository may be removed to keep the template lean. To set up your database, use schema:load instead of running all migrations manually.

1. Configure config/database.yml

Example:

default: &default
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  username: <%= ENV.fetch("DB_USERNAME", "postgres") %>
  password: <%= ENV.fetch("DB_PASSWORD", "") %>
  host: <%= ENV.fetch("DB_HOST", "localhost") %>
  port: <%= ENV.fetch("DB_PORT", 5432) %>
  pool: <%= ENV.fetch("RAILS_MAX_THREADS", 5) %>

development:
  <<: *default
  database: <%= ENV.fetch("DB_NAME_DEVELOPMENT", "base_rails8_development") %>

test:
  <<: *default
  database: <%= ENV.fetch("DB_NAME_TEST", "base_rails8_test") %>

production:
  <<: *default
  database: <%= ENV.fetch("DB_NAME_PRODUCTION", "base_rails8_production") %>

2. Environment Variables

Using .env (loaded by dotenv-rails):

DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=your_password
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432

DB_NAME_DEVELOPMENT=base_rails_development
DB_NAME_TEST=base_rails_test
DB_NAME_PRODUCTION=base_rails_production

DB_USERNAME_PRODUCTION=base_rails
DB_PASSWORD_PRODUCTION=change_me_securely

3. Create and Load Schema

rails db:create
rails db:schema:load
# optionally
rails db:seed

Note: Because this template is schema-driven, keep schema.rb up to date. New projects cloned from this repo should bootstrap the database with db:schema:load.

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Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/jeffersonspeck/base_rails.git your-project
   cd your-project

2. Install Ruby/Rails dependencies

   bundle install

3. Configure environment

   • Create .env based on the example above.
   • Adjust config/database.yml if needed.

4. Database

   rails db:create
   rails db:schema:load

5. Run the server

   rails server

Visit: http://localhost:3000

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Contributing

Pull requests and issues are welcome. If you extend the layout, components, or starter features, feel free to share improvements.

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

You are free to use, modify, distribute, and sublicense this template, provided that the MIT license notice is included in copies or substantial portions of the software.