Building Modular Rails Applications: A Deep Dive into Rails Engines

Summary

I’ve been building Rails applications for the last 10 years on a daily base and almost all of them use active storage now. Users are uploading files and then the questions start rolling in from the team and they are always the same: “How much storage are we actually using?” “Can we see which files aren’t attached to anything anymore?” “What types of files are users uploading the most?” “Is there a way to browse through all our stored files?” I usually open the Rails console, write a few queries, and get the answers for the team or for the stakeholders. But you know this isn’t sustainable. What I need is a proper dashboard, something visual, something that non-technical team members can use, something that doesn’t require SSH access to production servers. This is exactly the problem I faced, and it led me down a fascinating journey into the world of Rails engines, ultimately resulting in the creation of Active Storage Dashboard, a mountable Rails engine that provides a modern interface for monitoring and managing Active Storage data. Always the same screen for every app, over and over. Easy to mount and easy to use. Introducing Active Storage Dashboard Active Storage Dashboard is more than just a simple admin interface. It’s a fully-featured Rails engine that seamlessly integrates into any Rails application, providing immediate visibility into your file storage ecosystem. With zero external dependencies (pure vanilla JavaScript and CSS), it offers a beautiful, animated interface that feels natural in modern web applications. The gem provides comprehensive insights including: Real-time storage statistics and usage metrics Browsable interfaces for blobs, attachments, and variant records Advanced filtering capabilities for finding specific files Direct download functionality from the dashboard Maintenance tasks for cleaning up orphaned files Support for both table and card view layouts Beautiful visualizations of content type distributions Active Storage Dashboard is a ...