Question

I have just started a simple CMS in Rails 2.3.

The application will get more complex in the future (more classes, controllers, plugins, etc)

Do you think it may be a good idea to re-write the app in Rails 3?

Thanks

Answer 1

You will end up on Rails 3 eventually. In my view the question is really about when you should make the move. You could do it now while your app is simple and there are fewer things to change to the new Rail 3 syntax.

The downside to doing it now would be that there are still lots of plugins and gems that are not compatible with Rails 3. You might be using one already and it might be a show stopper (unlikely but possible).
If you wait, the gems/plugins will eventually catch up with Rails 3 but your app will be more complicated and require more work to migrate. There probably isn’t a right answer.
Personally I might lean towards waiting a little.

IMO the best thing you can do is try to get a sense of what the upgrade will be like for you and try to make the call based on that. Railscasts and Peepcode both have great videos. You should definitely check as many of your gems/plugins as you can at http://www.railsplugins.org/ (Not all of mine were listed, and it turns out some don’t work…)

You can also run the rails_upgrade plugin on your project and get a list of all the things you will need to change.

Just my two cents.