Whenever I want to add a gem to my rails app, I go to specific gem's github repo and follow the Readme instructions. Usually there are couple of steps to install the gem:
1. Add the gem to your Gemfile
* This is almost always the same - possible config options could be: `require: false` or `group :development, :test`
2. Run the gem's generator
* Usually `rails generate gem_name:install` or `rake gem_name:install:migrations`
3. Migrate the database
I have an idea that would streamline this process and make it easier to add gem to rails apps:
`rails install` command
This command would install a ruby gem and run any necessary generators and setup code to make the gem fully installed and added to the app.
Rails is all about Convention-over-Configuration. What we lack here is Convention.
Gem developers could add a simple config option (e.g. in .gemspec file) or dotfile to their gems that will set the flag that this gem follows (new) rails gem installation configuration. Then we could define the necessary instructions to fully install and setup the gem. It could work similarly to `rails new` template.
This idea comes from `ember install`: